LUXEMBOURG,LU — Nordea Asset Management (NAM) announces the 3-year anniversary of Nordea 1 – North American Stars Equity Fund (ISIN: BP USD – LU0772958525; BI USD – LU0772957808), a key MiFID-eligible strategy within its ESG STARS building blocks offering. This anniversary comes less than 300 days before the new EU MiFID and sustainability regulation is implemented.

This month, NAM is proud to celebrate the three-year anniversary of the Nordea 1 – North American Stars Equity Fund (“the Fund”). The Fund leverages the expertise of one of the largest award-winning Responsible Investments teams in Europe and qualifies as an Article 8 product under SFDR regulations; it is also MiFID eligible.

The Fund is a high conviction portfolio (40-70 holdings) with a long-term bottom-up approach. With more than USD 1.9bn in assets under management, the Fund has delivered strong alpha, relative to its benchmark, the Russell 3000 NR USD Index over the past three years.1

NAM’s ESG analysts are embedded into investment teams and participate actively in company engagements. Close day-to-day collaboration between NAM’s Fundamental Equities Team, which selects stocks and allocates capital, and its Responsible Investments Team, which analyses the ESG aspects, facilitates investment-led ESG plans that generate value and have a real world impact.

“From idea generation to engagement with companies, our teams collaborate to build a 360-degree perspective of a holding,” says Joakim Ahlberg, manager of the Fund. “The ESG analysts work alongside the portfolio managers throughout the investment process, providing invaluable insights into possible risks and opportunities.”

The Fund holds three independent ESG labels: Label ISR2 , LuxFLAG3 and Towards Sustainability4.

“Nordea 1- North American Stars Equity Fund, like all our ESG STARS equity products, offers investors a way to begin to decarbonize their portfolios,” says Eric Pedersen, Head of Responsible Investments at NAM. “The Fund is classified as managed in line with Net Zero in 2050 under NAM’s Net-Zero Asset Mangers commitment and its weighted average carbon intensity (WACI)5 is currently approx. 40% lower than that of its Russell 3000 Index – NR Index.”

NAM’s ESG STARS franchise, consisting of 17 equity and fixed income strategies, cover various geographies, e.g. Europe, North America, Asia, EM, etc and thus represent building blocks for allocators seeking MiFID-eligible solutions to meet new sustainability regulations. All ESG STARS funds are actively managed, follow positive screening and adhere to NAM’s Paris Aligned Fossil Fuel Policy. Nordea Asset Management has been committed to Responsible Investment for more than 30 years since the launch of its first sector screened fund in 1988 and has one of the largest ESG dedicated Responsible Investments teams in Europe.