Aegon AM Shifts €567 Million to Climate Transition

Aegon Asset Management has added a climate transition focus to its £490 million (€567 million) Aegon Short Dated Investment Grade Bond fund.

The fund is classified as Article 8 under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.

Aegon AM's responsible investment team and the global credit research team will embed climate transition and ESG analysis into the portfolio.

The fund aims to return cash +1.25% gross of fees over rolling three-year periods while having at least 30% less carbon intensity than the broader credit market, as defined by the BofAML Global Large Cap Corporate 1-to-5-year index.

The fund continues to seek investment-grade bonds with maturities of less than four years and has a maximum permissible exposure of 20% in callable or high-yield bonds.

Citywire + rated Iain Buckle, Aegon AM's Head of UK Credit, will continue to manage the fund.

Buckle commented on the change, stating that it was necessary to amend the fund's name to better represent its transformation into an Article 8 strategy and subsequent modifications in investment approach and responsible investing philosophy.

He said, "Within the fund, we have a highly experienced team with a strong track record of managing short-dated investment-grade strategies. We also utilise our proprietary climate transition framework and our specialist responsible investment team to research and categorise issuers according to their level of alignment with progress towards a net-zero economy."

Source: Citywire

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