On Monday 19 November 2018, Nordea Asset Management (NAM) launched the Nordea 1 – North American Stars Equity Fund.  (BP USD, ISIN LU0772958525).

Nordea Asset Management (NAM) has added a new member to its STARS equity family, a suite of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) solutions, with the launch of the Nordea 1 – North American Stars Equity Fund (“the Fund”). The new strategy leverages the successful track record of the Nordea 1 – Global Stars Equity Fund.

By employing the formula of NAM’s STARS concept, the Fund offers investors a cutting edge ESG integration approach that combines high ESG standards with proactive engagement to generate alpha within the US equities space.

The Fund is managed by Johan Swahn, a member of the Fundamental Equities Team, who also is portfolio manager of the Nordea 1 – Global Stars Equity Fund. For both funds, M. Swahn leverages the proprietary ESG rating model and longstanding expertise of NAM’s ESG analysis team, which has received the Capital Finance International award for Best ESG Process in Europe for the fifth consecutive year. The Fund is a high conviction, pure bottom-up stock picking strategy with over USD 350 million in assets under management.

With the addition of this fund, NAM’s STARS equity family now consists of six strategies that represent a unique concept where portfolio management teams fully integrate ESG factors into the investment process and use dialogue and engagement to make a real impact.

“We evaluate stocks to identify companies able to deliver sustainable long-term shareholder value,” says Jens Rygaard, CIO, Fixed Income and Equities and Acting Head of Nordea’s Fundamental Equities team, which is in charge of the STARS equity products. “We not only invest in companies with high ESG standards, we go a step further by quantifying and integrating ESG into our valuation model.”

Since the launch of NAM’s first STARS equity strategy in 2011, the asset manager has built a strong suite of ESG equity solutions that cover Emerging, Global, European, Nordic and now North American market