Legg Mason Martin Currie Global Emerging Markets

The environmental and social characteristics of the product include the binding considerations of sustainability risks which may include; supply chain, data protection, pollution/hazardous waste policies, water usage, and climate change policies.

The product is also bound to consider governance characteristics such as: ownership structure, shareholder rights, board structure, remuneration policy and accounting standards.

The Fund seeks to achieve its objective through a policy of investing primarily in a portfolio of equity securities of companies domiciled or derives the predominant portion of their revenue from an emerging market country. When selecting investments for the strategy the investment manager seeks to invest in companies that can generate economic value in excess of the market’s existing expectations. The investment manager applies its ESG process (as set out in Methodology) to 100% of the portfolio. The Fund will maintain a portfolio ESG rating higher than that of the Fund’s investment universe.

The investment manager uses an established proprietary process to assess ESG factors/characteristics. These factors/characteristics are assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively, through its proprietary ESG rating system and its direct research and engagement process. The manager’s proprietary ESG ratings capture the forward-looking analysis with companies assigned a risk rating on each of Governance and Sustainability from 1 (low risk) to 5 (high risk) following consideration of Environment, Social affairs and Corporate Governance sustainability factors. Companies that have a Sustainability or Governance Risk rating of 4 or higher will not be included.

The Fund will not invest in companies which generate more than 5% of revenue from tobacco production or those companies with over 5% of revenue from coal based power generation or the mining of thermal coal or production of weapons. The Fund will not invest in companies involved in the production, sale or distribution of dedicated and key components of antipersonnel mines and cluster munitions. The Fund will not invest in companies that are assessed as ‘fail’ under the UN Global Compact. 

A combination of internal and external sources is deployed:

• Internal Scoring – Governance Risk rating and Sustainability Risk rating
• Engagement activity and tracking – Environmental, Social or Governance topics and stages of engagement
• External Data Metrics (e.g. MSCI) – Carbon footprint and ESG scoring
• Other measures include carbon Intensity, Carbon VAR, SDG alignment and Modern slavery exposure.

No index has been designated as a reference benchmark for sustainability.