Aktia America fund recognised for climate achievements at international Climetrics Fund Awards

Aktia’s America fund has received global recognition, winning at the 2021 Climetrics Fund Awards organised by the climate not-for-profit organisation CDP, in the category for funds investing in US companies. The award is only given to five funds in the world in each assessment category, from among more than 17,000 rated funds.

Aktia has long engaged in portfolio management that focuses on the environment, and the award given to the Aktia America fund illustrates the work conducted throughout Aktia’s portfolio management: “For years, we have integrated environmental and climate issues into our investment philosophy and process, and understood the existence of climate risks. This impacts how we select investment instruments for our portfolios,” explains Markus Lindqvist, Director, Sustainability at Aktia.

The Aktia America fund has been on the market since 2003. Since 2006, its portfolio manager has been Andreas Bergman. “The Climetrics Fund Awards honour the hard work our team has put into the fund. Underlying this is Aktia’s active and long-term portfolio management, through which we target the best possible risk-adjusted returns in the long run,” says Portfolio Manager Andreas Bergman. “As the portfolio manager, it has been gratifying to see how US companies have significantly improved their sustainability performance in recent years, in terms of both their operations and their reporting.”

The Aktia America fund invests in responsible, high-quality and growing US companies. The fund also has the highest possible Morningstar sustainability rating, 5 globes, which is based on how the companies the fund owns manage their ESG risks.

CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, tasked with the collection of data on companies’ climate change mitigation, greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change. Climetrics is the only organisation in the world independently measuring funds’ environmental performance. Funds are assessed on three levels: the fund’s portfolio holdings, the asset manager’s investment policy and process, and the asset manager’s governance of climate issues. In addition to the award-winning America fund, five other Aktia funds have achieved Climetrics’ highest 5-leaf rating.

“You cannot succeed in the Climetrics assessment just by selling unsuitable companies from your portfolio, because the investment process in itself is also assessed. We won because we recognise climate risks as real risks, and their assessment is part of the assessment of our investment instruments,” Bergman points out.

Aktia published its new climate strategy in 2021, and the goal is carbon neutrality in the investment portfolios by 2050. As part of its climate strategy, Aktia also joined the international Net Zero Asset Managers initiative in late 2021. The initiative, which supports the goal of restricting emissions and has become the standard in the asset management sector, offers more concrete tools for sustainability work.