Sustainable investment objective of the Fund

The Fund has two aims:

• Financial objective: to provide a total return (capital growth plus income) of 4 to 8% per year over any five-year period.
• Sustainable objective: to contribute to a sustainable economy by investing in assets supporting environmental and/or social goals, in particular climate change mitigation.

How the Fund meets its sustainable investment objective

The Fund’s approach to sustainable investment is through flexible asset allocation, whilst investing in securities issued by companies or governments that uphold high standards of environmental, social and governance behaviour. In addition, the Fund maintains a core holding of positive impact assets which are assets that have a positive societal impact through addressing the world’s major social and environmental challenges.

The Fund allocates to securities expected to be sustainable investments that positively contribute to one or more environmental or social goals, assessing and reporting on their contribution through the use of key sustainability indicators, as further described in the ESG Criteria and Sustainability Criteria. As part of the investment process, the Investment Manager considers the long-term sustainability of assets, including carbon intensity and climate change mitigation.

All securities held in the Fund are subject to the ESG Criteria and Sustainability Criteria. This is achieved through the use of M&G’s proprietary analysis and/or third party ESG information.

The Fund has a minimum set of norms-based, values-based and sector-based exclusions and seeks to deliver on ESG and/or sustainable objectives and outcomes in addition to their financial objectives.

Furthermore, the Fund has Stewardship and Engagement as fundamental pillars. Both pillars look to ensure that the investee companies follow good governance practices on issues such as diversity amongst directors and workforce, business ethics, accounting practices and board governance.

The following types of exclusions apply to the Fund’s direct investments:

• Norms-based exclusions: investments that are assessed to be in breach of commonly accepted standards of behaviour related to human rights, labour rights, environment and anti-corruption.
• Sector-based and/or values-based exclusions: investments and/or sectors exposed to business activities that are assessed to be damaging to human health, societal wellbeing, the environment, or otherwise assessed to be misaligned with the Fund’s sector-based and/or values-based criteria.
• Other exclusions: investments assessed to be otherwise in conflict with the ESG Criteria and Sustainability Criteria.

References to “assessed” above mean assessment in accordance with the ESG Criteria and Sustainability Criteria.

The Fund is actively managed and it has no benchmark.

Additional information

Further information on the ESG and Impact methodology, including data sources, screening criteria and the relevant sustainability indicators of the fund can be found in the ESG Criteria and Impact Criteria.

A description of ESG and responsible investment terms used is available in the fund’s Prospectus.