The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

Thematics Asset Management
Thematics Asset Management (Thematics AM) – an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers specialized in global thematic strategies – expanded this week its product line-up with the Thematics Climate Selection Fund.

It is a concentrated, multi-thematic fund targeting companies whose emissions trajectories are aligned with the Paris Agreement target of keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius. 

Whilst existing climate strategies often seek to invest in specific industries, such as renewable energy, Thematics AM looks at climate change through a different lens. It targets companies that have a clear decarbonization trajectory in line with a maximum 2° C rise in global temperatures, irrespective of industry or product focus, the firm said in a statement.

The fund’s investment universe spans each of Thematics AM’s five thematic strategies – Artificial Intelligence & Robotics, Safety, the Subscription Economy, Water and Wellness, with a portfolio of 40-60 holdings. It is co-managed by founding partners and portfolio managers Arnaud Bisschop and Karen Kharmandarian and supported by climate specialist Guillaume Gosselin, the firm continued.

Arnaud Bisschop, portfolio manager and head of ESG of Thematics Asset Management, said: “The urgency of climate change is more evident than ever, with transition risks impacting company balance sheets as well as overall profitability. We believe that by identifying the companies leading the charge in the adoption and disclosure of decarbonization strategies, it is possible to turn transition risks into transition opportunities.” The Thematics Climate Selection Fund is a sub-fund of the Luxembourg SICAV NIF Lux I, approved by the Luxembourg Commission for the Supervision of the Financial Sector (the "CSSF"). Natixis Investment Managers is the management company and Thematics AM is the investment manager.

BlackRock
BlackRock has launched the Climate Transition-Oriented Private Debt Fund within its global private debt platform.

The fund mainly focuses on European and US middle market direct lending where fund investments can help accelerate borrowers' climate transition agenda by providing support and resources, the US asset management titan said in a statement. It finances companies at a variety of stages of moving to net zero emissions. During the life of the investments, the team will engage with the companies it finances to support how they achieve decarbonization.

The firm said its Global Transition Investor Survey showed that almost all (98 per cent) of investors have set a transition investment objective for their portfolios and 75 per cent of institutional investors indicated that they have net zero objectives. BlackRock’s global private debt platform managers more than $84 billion in client assets.