Generali Investments has launched a sub-fund investing in euro-denominated green and sustainable bonds with an investment grade credit rating.
The Generali Investments SICAV (GIS) Euro Green and Sustainable Bond will be managed by Mauro Valle, head of fixed income at Generali Investments Partners and manager of the GIS Euro Bond funds investing in euro government bonds.
Co-manager Fabrizio Viola has managed corporate bond portfolios for third-party clients for Generali Investments since 2002.
Generali Investments said the sub-fund offers a liquid and transparent investment strategy in bonds financing projects linked to climate change.
As part of an active investment approach, the managers of GIS Euro Green and Sustainable Bond will be able to use a proprietary group ethical filter to screen and identify potential ESG controversies affecting issuers, and additional ESG risk ratings provided by Sustainalytics to monitor issuers on ESG criteria.
The new sub-fund, which is registered in Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Spain, will use the Bloomberg MSCI Barclays Euro Green bond index as its main investment universe and official benchmark.
According to Generali Investments, more than $250bn in green and sustainable bonds were issued in 2019.
Carlo Trabattoni, CEO of Generali Investments Partners, said: “Financial markets can be highly effective in moving capital to where it is needed and we aim to leverage on our expertise in managing more than €405bn in euro fixed income assets to address sustainability issues.
“In this perspective, and in line with the Generali Group’s commitment, we are launching the new GIS Euro Green and Sustainable Bond, which we think might contribute to the key global priority of climate change mitigation.”
The Generali Group recently joined the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, the United Nations-convened group of institutional investors committed to decarbonising their investment portfolios to net-zero emissions by 2050.
