Nikko Asset Management has recently announced its intentions to launch the Nikko AM World Bank Green Fund. The asset management firm, one of the largest and oldest in Japan, aims to “utilize the considerable resources of international bond investors to support financing of projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help countries adapt to the effects of climate change.” According to Nikko’s press release, the fund will have the ability to “invest up to 100% of its portfolio in green bonds issued by the World Bank.” All proceeds from the fund will support projects that are “designed to tackle the causes and consequences of climate change in the developing world” and funded by the World Bank. These projects include initiatives to “improve energy efficiency, provide alternative energy, fund new technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase reforestation in many countries.”
The Nikko AM World Bank Green Fundwill be structured as a Luxembourg-domciled UCITS III fund and will be available to European and Middle Eastern investors. Stuart Kinnersley has been named to head the new fund. In the press release, Nikko revealed that this newest fund will target “a range of international institutional investors, including financial groups, pension funds, banks, family offices and discretionary investment managers.”
Nikko’s president Charles Beazley stated, “The key to this fund lies in its ability to offer investors both the security of a managed portfolio of bonds issued by the World Bank, and the comfort that an organization with such stature and credibility as the World Bank is willing to ensure the investment supports environmental projects.”
|
