LUXEMBOURG, LU —On 21 February 2019, Nordea Asset Management (NAM) launched the Nordea 1 – Global Gender Diversity Fund (BP-USD LU1939214778; BI-USD LU1939215403) adding another sustainability themed product to its ESG range.

On today’s International Woman’s Day, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Nordea 1 – Global Gender Diversity Fund (“the Fund”), a solution aiming to prove it is possible to deliver solid returns by investing in companies with a strong focus on gender balance. The Fund is a global equity product managed by two female portfolio managers, Julie Bech and Audhild Asheim Aabø.

Gender diversity is an important sustainability related theme that is being accelerated by the United Nations’ commitment to a more peaceful and prosperous world, as evidenced by the UN’s 5th Sustainable Development Goal: “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”. With its core theme aligned with this objective, the Fund invests in companies with diverse gender representation. In addition, the Fund incorporates a number of ESG criteria such as excluding companies that are involved in breaches of international law and norms on environmental protection, human rights and labour standards.

“We privilege companies that include fair gender representation in senior management, executive management and at the board level,” says Julie Bech, co-manager of the Fund. “We believe that gender diversity drives a company’s profitability, thus companies promoting it should be rewarded. While this is a social issue, it is also correlated with business success.”

The launch of Nordea 1 – Global Gender Diversity Fund comes even as Nordea’s work to promote gender equality has been recognised for a third consecutive year with a spot on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI). Companies that are included in the index score above a global threshold in terms of gender equality-related policies and statistics. The 2019 GEI includes 230 leaders employing seven million women around the world.[1]

[1] Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/gei/about/