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Fund Developed Under New Impact Investing Team Expands Sustainability Investment Platform
BlackRock announces the launch of a high-conviction active equity impact strategy with
its BlackRock Global Impact Fund (“the Fund”). The new Fund gives investors the opportunity to direct their
investments toward companies helping to address major world challenges. The addition of the impact
strategy forms part of BlackRock’s continued efforts to expand its sustainable investment platform as it
delivers against its commitment to make sustainability its standard for investing.
The Fund’s impact is achieved by investing in companies which contribute to the advancement of the United
Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets. The portfolio is comprised of companies that
map back to the firm’s proprietary impact themes including increasing access to quality education and
affordable housing, advancing healthcare innovation to help with societal challenges such as the current
COVID-19 pandemic, expanding financial and digital inclusion, preventing climate change, reversing
environmental degradation, and increasing efficiencies in water usage and deployment.
The Fund is managed through BlackRock’s Active Equities Impact Investing team which recently formed
under the leadership of Eric Rice, who joined the firm in October 2019. Eric will draw upon his 30 years of
industry experience, most recently exclusively developing and managing impact strategies, and including
his prior experience working for the World Bank as a development economist and as a U.S. diplomat in
Rwanda.
Rachel Lord, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa for BlackRock commented, “Eric joined
BlackRock with a strong track record in developing alpha-seeking impact strategies and his expertise will
lead our impact investing efforts during this challenging time and beyond. While launching the Global
Impact Fund during a global pandemic is coincidental, it does highlight that the opportunity inherent in
investing in companies committed to doing good is enduring, and is of increasing relevance to the world
today.”
Alongside the impact goals, the Fund seeks to maximise long-term total return and to outperform the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI). To achieve the Fund’s objectives, the team has set stringent impact criteria
for the portfolio companies including:
- materiality – whereby a majority of revenues or business activity advances one or more of the SDGs
or targets; - additionality – defined as delivering a new technology or innovation to market, serving an
underserved population, or operating in an unaddressed market; and - measurability – in that the impact must be quantifiable.
“Impact investing is becoming more and more attractive as investors increasingly require their investment
targets to advance their sustainability objectives,” said Eric Rice, Portfolio Manager of the BlackRock
Global Impact Fund and Head of Active Equities Impact Investing at BlackRock. “Launching the Fund
during the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the important role companies play in
society. COVID-19 is one of the greatest societal challenges the world faces right now, and we see impact
investing playing a meaningful role in how we overcome it. Capital from the Fund will be put toward the
search for alpha by investing in companies focused on medical diagnostic tools and vaccines to combat the
crisis, as well as crisis mass notification systems and microloans, amongst others.”
The team intends to run a low-turnover, long-term buy and hold concentrated portfolio strategy and use
active dialogue and partnership with companies to drive improvement towards impact outcomes, alongside
long-term value creation. The Fund is USD-denominated and available for investors located across Europe.
Impact investments are designed to generate positive, measurable impact alongside a financial return. The
Fund uses the World Bank’s IFC Operating Principles to ensure impact considerations are integrated
throughout the investment lifecycle. Reporting plays an integral role of the investment offering where
clients will receive regular updates and reports on the positive environmental or social impact that Fund
companies are achieving.
BlackRock’s active equities impact offering will sit alongside existing impact strategies in the fixed income
and alternatives business areas. The Active Equities group manages USD $316bn * of assets on behalf of its
clients and has managed Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment strategies for over four
years.
The Fund forms a part of BlackRock’s Sustainable Investing platform which manages USD $107bn[[Source: BlackRock 31 December 2020.
]] in
dedicated sustainable strategies, comprising of ESG outcome oriented, sustainable thematic and impact
funds. Sustainable investment options may have the potential to offer clients better outcomes and is integral
to the way BlackRock manages risk, constructs portfolios, designs products and engages with companies.
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