Sarasin IE Sustainable Global Real Estate Equity Fund
A global equity fund for the ‘concerned’ investor, with exposure to prime real estate around the world
About This Fund
The Sarasin IE Sustainable Global Real Estate Equity fund is a compelling option for the ‘concerned’ investor, as it sets a higher threshold on environmental, social and governance issues when making investment decisions.
As one of the first European investors to develop a global listed real estate product, we have renowned expertise in this area.
Key Benefits
Real estate securities provide a cost and tax-efficient way to access high-quality commercial real estate while offering liquidity too. These securities are often the only way to obtain exposure to properties tin some of the best locations around the world.
Real estate securities also offer investors diversification benefits within a portfolio of equities and bonds.
How we invest for this fund
We invest across two pillars: Thematic and Income.
The Thematic part of the portfolio gives exposure to the long-term themes we have identified and that we believe will drive above industry growth rates. Examples of this are the healthcare sector which profits from an ‘ageing population’ and the self-storage sector, which profits from ‘urbanisation’.
The Income part of the portfolio gives exposure to some of the best real estate assets around the world managed by some of the best management teams and provides a stable and growing (dividend) income stream in most market conditions.
The combination of the two parts of the portfolio gives investors a stable and growing (dividend) income stream from the Income part of the portfolio and a growth strategy from the Thematic part of the portfolio.
Fund literature
How to Invest
You can find this fund on a range of different platforms. Find out more about how you can access it in your portfolio.
3D INVESTING RATING
This fund is a clear leader amongst real estate funds with ESG factors being very evident in stock selection. The managers have considerable expertise in assessing ESG issues, with a strong conviction that higher standards of ESG lead to superior performance in the real estate space. As a result, the fund is largely composed of real estate companies which might be regarded as leaders in their sector in terms of sustainability, notably in terms of energy use, waste recycling and resource efficiency.
Read the full 3D Investing report
3d investing rating
This fund is a clear leader amongst real estate funds with ESG factors being very evident in stock selection. The managers have considerable expertise in assessing ESG issues with a strong conviction that higher standards of ESG lead to superior performance in the real estate space.
As a result the fund is largely composed of ‘best of sector’ stocks and is globally diversified to reduce risk. Performance is proven over the long term.
Investment team
Latest Views
Promotion of Environmental or Social characteristics
This fund promotes environmental and/or social characteristics and is therefore classified as an “Article 8” product under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.
A description of the environmental or social characteristics
The consideration of environmental and social characteristics is an integral part of the investment management process and decisions to purchase or sell investments will be influenced by consideration of sustainability risks.
The Investment Manager believes that social and environmental impacts can represent material risks to investment values and a narrow focus on financial factors is unsustainable. To be sustainable, entities in which the fund invests should transition their operations not to cause significant environmental damage. Equally, investee entities should consider the social harms that can be caused by their operations and transition to a sustainable business model. The Investment Manager will actively engage with entities on areas of concern where it believes it can catalyse remedial action. In the case of equities, votes are exercised taking sustainability impacts into account. The Investment Manager may join collective actions on sustainability issues or pledge certain actions to promote sustainable outcomes on behalf of the Fund.
Information on the methodologies used to assess, measure and monitor the environmental or social characteristics
The Investment Manager has developed and operates detailed methodologies to assess, measure and monitor the environmental and social factors for investments within each asset class. For each asset class there is a common set of considerations.
For each investment, environmental assessments may include: climate change; use of materials, waste and failure to recycle (Circular Economy); land and biodiversity damage; water and ocean pollution and mismanagement; air pollution and particulates.
For each investment, social assessments may include: supply chain including working conditions, forced labour and discrimination; employee contracts and treatment; customer harms (including, for example, harms such as cancer from tobacco smoking or addiction to gambling); bribery and corruption; unfair social contribution and broader societal impacts such as tax behaviour.
For each of the environmental and social factors the Investment Manager may use various different sustainability indicators and screening criteria. Quantitative data is not always available but, where possible, the Investment Manager prefers to use information issued by the investee company or entity, alongside data from third party providers. In many cases, a qualitative assessment is required and the Investment Manager applies its own judgements, rather than relying on external ‘sustainability scores’. Given the wide range of inputs, it is not possible to list all of the sources for each characteristic here but details can be supplied on request to the Manager.