How we evaluate products
Responsible Investment strategies, processes, practices and disclosures are assessed against the eight criteria for product certification in the Responsible Investment Standard and accompanying Guidance and Assessment Notes.
What this symbol means
General certification: This Symbol signifies that a product or service offers an investment style that takes into account environmental, social, governance or ethical considerations, and that it adheres to the operational and disclosure practices required under the Responsible Investment Certification Program for the category of Product.
Responsible classification: This Symbol signifies that a product or service has been certified and classified to offer an investment style that takes into account environmental, social, governance or ethical considerations, and that it adheres to the operational and disclosure practices required under the Responsible Investment Certification Program for the category of Product.
<span class="text-size-xxsmall">The content on this webpage is provided by Responsible Investment Association Australasia Ltd (ACN 641 046 666, AFSL 554110). For more information refer to our Financial Services Guide. Certain content provided may constitute a summary or extract from the offer document of a financial product. Any general advice has been provided without reference to your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. If the advice relates to the acquisition of a particular financial product for which an offer document (such as a product disclosure document) is available, you should obtain the offer document relating to the particular financial product and consider it before making any decision whether to acquire the product. Past performance does not necessarily indicate a financial products’ future performance. To obtain information tailored to your situation, contact a financial adviser.</span>
Themes & Issues
Society
Environment
<span class="text-size-xxsmall">For RIAA’s definitions of the themes included and issues avoided, please view this guide. Product-specific exclusion criteria and practices may vary. You can find these by referring directly to the product provider.</span>
Overview
Janus Henderson is a signatory of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, a set of voluntary and aspirational principles giving a framework for the integration of ESG issues into mainstream investment decision making and ownership practices.
Janus Henderson has applied firm-wide baseline exclusions for current manufacture, or minority shareholding, of 20% or greater in a manufacturer of:
- Cluster munitions
- Anti-personnel mines
- Chemical weapons
- Biological weapons
These firm-wide exclusions do not apply to index and other derivatives or passive portfolios (including Exchange Traded Funds) intended to track a benchmark.
The Responsible Entity has delegated investment decisions for the purposes of selecting, retaining or realising investments for the Fund to the Manager pursuant to the investment management agreement. Therefore the Responsible Entity does not itself take into account labour standards, environmental, social or ethical considerations for the purpose of selecting, retaining or realising investments for the Fund.
The Manager takes labour standards, environmental, social and ethical considerations into account when selecting, retaining or realising investments.
The Fund does not pursue a sustainable investment strategy or have a sustainable investment objective. The Manager incorporates environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) information or insights but it is not bound by these considerations, unless they form part of firm-wide exclusions. ESG-related research is one of many factors considered within the Fund’s investment process and is used alongside other measures in the investment decision process to improve long term financial outcomes of portfolios.
Specifically, the Manager seeks to avoid investment in issuers directly involved in the following activities:
- tobacco manufacturing, including alternative smoking products;
- manufacture of controversial weapons (such as cluster munitions, landmines, biological or chemical weapons, depleted uranium weapons, blinding laser weapons, incendiary weapons, and/or non-detectable fragments); and
- production or distribution of pornography.
These negative screens may not be applied to indirect exposures through an issuer’s parent, subsidiary correlatedcompany.
The Manager will rely on ‘product involvement’ negative screening data, which identifies companies or issuersinvolvement in certain sectors or activities, provided by third party researchers to determine the individual issuers itshould exclude. The exclusion will be based on a 0% threshold on revenue from the excluded activities. The way revenue iscalculated will depend on the method used by the relevant third party researcher. While we have systems and controls inplace to oversee and review information provided by third parties, omissions or errors from third parties may result ininadvertent exposure to otherwise excluded investments.
While the Manager applies these negative screens to exclude certain investments to the extent possible, the Fundmay gain low levels of short term or de minimus indirect exposure to excluded investments as a result of indirectinvestment(including investment in underlying funds), index derivatives or interest in a subsidiary, parent or relatedcompany that is involved in the screened activities, which the Manager cannot sufficiently monitor or influence directly.The Manager seeks to take reasonable care to implement the Fund’s negative screens. If the Manager discovers aninvestment no longer meets the criteria, the Manager will seek to divest the holding subject to the prevailing marketconditions and having regard to the best interest of investors.
Other than described above, the Manager has no predetermined view on the specific labour standards andenvironmental, social and ethical considerations which it will apply or a fixed methodology or weightings for taking thesestandards and considerations into account when selecting, retaining and realising investments of the Fund, but ratherexamines a range of labour standards and environmental, social and ethical considerations and uses a range of tools,methodologies and services to assist with decision making.
The Manager monitors and reviews ESG issues in respect of the Fund’s investments on a case by case basis and maytake steps to realise, reduce or cease making further investments in organisations or securities which are negativelyaffected by ESG issues. The Manager has no set timeframe for monitoring and reviewing investments.
Description
The Fund seeks to achieve a total return after fees that exceed the total return of the Benchmark (Bloomberg AusBond Composite 0+ Yr Index), over rolling three-year periods.