Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co., Helsinki, shifted €500 million ($561 million) into an Amundi emerging markets exchange-traded fund with a sustainable focus, moving from an Amundi broad index ETF.
The pension insurance firm made the initial investment in the Amundi MSCI Emerging ESG Leaders UCITS ETF, confirmed Juha Venalainen, senior portfolio manager, cross asset allocation. The allocation was made from an Amundi broad index ETF, Mr. Venalainen said.
The new ETF tracks an index that provides exposure to companies with high environmental, social and governance performance vs. peers in their sectors. The index is made up of large- and midcap companies across 26 emerging markets. It excludes firms involved in tobacco, alcohol, gambling, nuclear power, weapons and other controversial businesses.
Ilmarinen has been switching its roughly €4.8 billion ETF portfolio to ESG strategies over the past 18 months, with the latest allocation the final part in that program, Mr. Venalainen said. ESG now accounts for more than 90% of Ilmarinen's equity ETF allocations. ETF allocations are a core part of Ilmarinen's roughly €15 billion in equity investments, used for efficient regional and country allocations, he said. Ilmarinen had a total €46.4 billion in assets as of March 31.
Ilmarinen aims to be carbon neutral by the end of 2035.
