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;

·         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.

The Manager will engage a third party provider to assist it to determine the individual issuers it should exclude. The Manager also engages with company management and debt origination desks at banks to discuss and promote the growth of the positive impact investing landscape.

Other than described above, the Manager has no predetermined view on the specific labour standards and environmental, social and ethical considerations which it will apply or a fixed methodology or weightings for taking these standards 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 Janus Henderson Governance & Stewardship (“G&S”) Team supports the investment teams on relevant ESG issues and developing themes. As long-term active investors, we regard voting and engagement as a means of promoting strong corporate governance, accountability and management of relevant ESG issues. The G&S team proactively partners with investment desks to coordinate thematic engagements around our core sustainability themes of Climate Change, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Corporate Governance. The G&S team also engages on relevant and emerging themes, such as access to medicines and pertinent issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Manager monitors and reviews the Fund’s investments, on a case by case basis, in light of any labour standards and environmental, social and ethical issues researched and raised, and may take steps to realise, reduce or cease making further investments in organisations or securities which are negatively affected by labour standards and environmental, social and ethical considerations. The Manager has no set timeframe for monitoring and reviewing investments. 

The Fund seeks to achieve a total return after fees that exceeds the total return of the Benchmark, by investing in a diversified portfolio of predominantly Australian income producing assets.