For the purposes of this policy, the Adviser will consider “sustainable” investments as those that are selected in accordance with its sustainable investment methodology, which is based on a materiality assessment of a company’s carbon intensity and incorporates a proprietary scoring methodology focusing on the overall sustainability credentials of issuers.
3. Effective May 26, 2023, in line with its name change and Names Rule Policy change, the Fund will revise its investment strategies.
Accordingly, the Fund will replace its current summary investment strategy in its entirety with the following under the section entitled “What are the Fund’s Main Investment Strategies?”:
“The Fund pursues its investment objective by investing primarily in a diversified portfolio of sustainable, lower-rated fixed-income investments. These investments include lower-rated corporate bonds (also known as “junk bonds”) which include debt securities issued by U.S. or foreign businesses (including emerging market debt securities). The Fund’s investment adviser or sub-adviser (as applicable, the “Adviser”) does not target an average maturity for the Fund’s portfolio.
The Adviser’s securities selection process includes a focus on sustainable investments and the avoidance of issuers with high environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) risk as determined in accordance with the Adviser’s sustainable investment methodology, which includes a proprietary analysis of a company’s creditworthiness, ESG risks and sustainability credentials.
The Adviser assigns an ESG Rating to individual securities based on a proprietary assessment of material ESG risks. The Adviser determines these ratings based on research and due diligence, including a review of information that may be publicly available, company provided and/or from third party sources. The ESG Rating is determined by the Adviser’s view of material risks including: environmental (e.g., temperature alignment, carbon intensity, water usage, waste reduction), social (e.g., human rights, employee rights, health/safety concerns, data privacy), and governance (e.g., management effectiveness and board composition). Additionally, issuers will be evaluated based on their willingness and ability to decarbonize based on the Adviser’s proprietary Climate Change Impact Score (CCI) methodology. These scores are determined by combining a review of data on greenhouse gas emissions, publicly available or company-disclosed information, third-party opinions and engagement with issuers.
The Adviser may invest up to 15% of the Fund’s net assets in companies that have not been subject to sustainability analysis. The Fund will generally not purchase securities with ESG Ratings or CCI Scores below certain thresholds deemed by the Adviser to have failed an analysis of sustainability credentials. However, the Fund may purchase a “Green Bond,” “Social Bond” or “Sustainability-Linked Bond” (collectively, “GSS Bonds”) from certain issuers whose securities may otherwise be excluded based on ESG Ratings or CCI Scores.