Increased demand for responsible investment options has seen Mercer award Acadian Asset Management with a mandate to run its Australian Equities Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) fund.
The United Nations Principle for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) signatory secured the mandate for the fund last week.
Acadian chief executive, Andrew Hair, said the fund manager targeted a reduced level of carbon emissions below that of the broad Australian equity index (ASX300), while also adopting screens to exclude business activities that fail to meet the criteria of socially responsible investors.
“We are working in a consultative partnership with Mercer and are pleased to have the opportunity to develop another portfolio around their goals,” he said.
“This year, we were pleased to receive an ‘A’ from the UNPRI on our overarching approach to responsible investments as well as an ‘A’ on our approach to Integration.
“Our flexible portfolio construction process lends itself to such tailoring and we are excited to be able to provide such an innovative solution to our clients.”
The announcement followed Acadian announcing that it had been awarded an Australian Equities Small Cap mandate by IOOF Investments, as part of IOOF’s MySuper option.
