2024 RT Amination Banner.gif

China Daily

News> Business> Content
Wednesday, August 15, 2018, 19:13
UBS doubles sustainable portfolio to $2.5 billion
By Sun Feier
Wednesday, August 15, 2018, 19:13 By Sun Feier

HONG KONG - Multinational financial service provider UBS doubled its sustainable cross-asset investment to CHF2.45 billion ($2.46 billion) since it started the portfolio in January, with both societal impact and financial return in mind, the company said.

“The sustainable investing sector has experienced significant growth over the last 10 years, ” Mario Knoepfel, UBS Asia-Pacific’s sustainable investing director, told a media roundtable on Tuesday. “Globally, today we are talking about $23 trillion allocated to some sort of sustainability”.

Launched in Europe, UBS extended its world-first 100 percent sustainable cross-asset portfolio to Asia Pacific three months later. The Switzerland-based financial institution considers environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts when making investment decisions for the portfolio.

As  the global population grows, so will the demand for food, water and energy, potentially leading to a scarcity of resources. Companies can mitigate this problem through advances that would produce a greater supply of resources and support more people, said Adrian Zuercher, UBS wealth management chief investment officer.

With 13 percent World Bank bonds and 10 percent green bonds in the cross-asset portfolio, UBS also invests in ESG equity funds and shares of companies that are managing critical environmental, social and governance issues.

World Bank bonds finance social and economic in developing countries. Green bonds are issued by corporations, municipalities and development banks aiming to conduct environmental projects.

“If I look at the year-to-date number for APAC, which is close to $200 million, all this came from more than 100 clients,” said Amy Lo, chairman and head of wealth management at UBS Greater China.

The financial service provider also saw interest in sustainable investing from clients who are in the food, healthcare and chemical sectors, since they know the environmental importance as well as the necessity of taking care of the next generation; the younger generation, woman as well as millennials, who could drive the family offices’ investment strategy, are also very passionate on this topic, Lo added.

joycesun@chinadailyhk.com

Share this story