Fund Name SRI Style Product Region Asset Type Launch Date
Trojan Ethical Income Fund Ethical OEIC/Unit Trust UK Equity Income 06/01/16

Objectives

The investment objective of the Trojan Ethical Income Fund is to seek to achieve income with the potential for capital growth in the medium term (3 to 5 years). The Fund invests in accordance with the parameters of its Ethical Exclusion Criteria.

Fund Size: £298.00m

Total screened & themed / SRI assets: £1122.00m

Total Responsible Ownership assets: £10953.00m

Total assets under management: £14387.00m

As at: 28/02/23

ISIN: GB00BYMLFL45, GB00BKTW4T37, GB00BKTW4V58, GB00BYMLFK38, GB00BYMLFN68, GB00BYMLFM51, GB00BYMLFR07, GB00BYMLFQ99


Contact: Tom Brooksbank: tb@taml.co.uk

Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Overview

Trojan Ethical Income Fund is an exclusion-based fund, which follows the same strategy as our other UK Equity Income funds, but with c.10% of our firm-wide investment universe (c. 170 stocks) screened out.

We believe that an integrated and client-focused approach to ESG will deliver better outcomes for investors over the long term. All of Troy’s strategies have an emphasis on investing in quality companies with sustainable returns, with good corporate behaviour and governance. ESG analysis forms part of the wider investment thesis and is considered alongside other factors such as stability of business model, competitive advantages and valuation, in order to make an investment decision.

We look for coherent and effective risk management in our investee companies, including material environmental factors and a plan to mitigate climate risk specifically. We also aim to identify and assess social risks, which our thematic research on supply chains and modern slavery have helped direct.

Primary fund last amended: 02/05/23 11:16

Information received directly from Fund Manager

Please select what you would like to read:
  • Fund Filters

    Sustainability

    Environmental policy

    Sustainability policy

    Encourage more sustainable practices through stewardship

    Climate Change & Energy

    Coal, oil & / or gas majors excluded

    Climate change / greenhouse gas emissions policy

    Fracking and tar sands excluded

    Fossil fuel reserves exclusion

    Require net zero action plan from all/most companies

    Paris aligned fund strategy

    TCFD reporting requirement

    Encourage transition to low carbon through stewardship activity

    Fossil fuel exploration exclusion - direct involvement

    Fossil fuel exploration exclusion – indirect involvement

    Human Rights

    Modern slavery exclusion policy

    Social / Employment

    Favours companies with strong social policies

    Responsible mining policy

    Mining exclusion

    Ethical Values Led Exclusions

    Ethical policies

    Tobacco production avoided

    Armaments manufacturers avoided

    Alcohol production excluded

    Gambling avoidance policy

    Pornography avoidance policy

    Civilian firearms production exclusion

    Banking & Financials

    Predatory lending exclusion

    Governance & Management

    Governance policy

    Avoids companies with poor governance

    Encourage board diversity e.g. gender

    UN sanctions exclusion

    Encourage higher ESG standards through stewardship activity

    Fund Governance

    ESG integration strategy

    Asset Size & Metrics

    Over 50% large cap companies

    Invests mostly in large cap companies

    How The Fund Works

    Negative selection bias

    Focus on ESG risk mitigation

    SRI / ESG / Ethical policies explained on website

    Labels & Accreditations

    SFDR Article 8 fund / product (EU)

    Intended Clients & Product Options

    Faith friendly

    Intended for investors interested in ESG / sustainability

    Available via an ISA (OEIC only)

    Fund management company information

    About The Business

    ESG / SRI engagement (AFM company wide)

    Responsible ownership / stewardship policy (AFM company wide)

    Responsible ownership policy for non SRI funds (AFM company wide)

    Vote all* shares at AGMs / EGMs (AFM company wide)

    Diversity, equality & inclusion engagement policy (AFM company wide)

    Boutique / specialist fund management company

    Integrates ESG factors into all / most fund research

    In-house diversity improvement programme (AFM company wide)

    Offer unstructured intermediary sustainable investment training

    Resources

    In-house responsible ownership / voting expertise

    Use specialist ESG / SRI / sustainability research companies

    ESG specialists on all investment desks (AFM company wide)

    Collaborations & Affiliations

    PRI signatory

    Climate Action 100+ or IIGCC member

    GFANZ member (AFM company wide)

    Investment Association (IA) member

    Accreditations

    UK Stewardship Code signatory (AFM company wide)

    PRI A+ rated (AFM company wide)

    Engagement Approach

    Regularly lead collaborative ESG initiatives (AFM company wide)

    Engaging on climate change issues

    Engaging with fossil fuel companies on climate change

    Engaging to reduce plastics pollution / waste

    Engaging to encourage responsible mining practices

    Engaging on biodiversity / nature issues

    Engaging to encourage a Just Transition

    Engaging on human rights issues

    Engaging on labour / employment issues

    Engaging on diversity, equality and / or inclusion issues

    Engaging on governance issues

    Engaging on responsible supply chain issues

    Climate & Net Zero Transition

    Encourage carbon / greenhouse gas reduction (AFM company wide)

    Net Zero commitment (AFM company wide)

    Working towards a ‘Net Zero’ commitment (AFM company wide)

    Carbon transition plan published (AFM company wide)

    ‘Forward Looking Climate Metrics’ published / ITR (AFM company wide)

    Carbon offsetting – do NOT offset carbon as part of net zero plan (AFM company wide)

    In-house carbon / GHG reduction policy (AFM company wide)

    Publish 'CEO owned' Climate Risk policy (AFM company wide)

    Net Zero - have set a Net Zero target date (AFM company wide)

    Voting policy includes net zero targets (AFM company wide)

    Transparency

    Publish full voting record (AFM company wide)

    Publish responsible ownership / stewardship report (AFM company wide)

    Full SRI policy information on company website

    Full SRI policy information available on request

    Net Zero transition plan publicly available (AFM company wide)

    Sustainability transition plan publicly available (AFM company wide)

  • Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Policy:

    The Trojan Ethical Income Fund employs negative screening in accordance with its published Ethical Exclusion Criteria in relation to fossil fuels, gambling, alcohol, high interest rate lending, pornography, tobacco and certain types of armaments. The Fund Manager is responsible for the implementation of the screening process by utilising Moody's ESG Solutions (previously Vigeo EIRIS) which provides us with research and analysis for monitoring the behaviour and activities of our holding companies. The negative screens are predominantly based on revenue thresholds and are not impacted by valuation or other factors.

    The Ethical Exclusion Criteria is as follows:

    • Armaments –
      • generates more than 10% of its total turnover from strategic military supplies relating to conventional weapons and/or
      • produces key parts of, or provides services for, cluster munitions systems, and/or
      • is alleged to have contravened the convention on anti-personnel mines in the last ten years and which has not addressed the allegations, and/or (d) manufactures products, or provides services, which are all or part of a nuclear weapons system.
    • Tobacco – makes more than 10% of its total turnover from tobacco products.
    • Pornography – derives more than 3% of its total turnover from pornography or adult entertainment.
    • Fossil Fuels –
      • derives more than 10% of its total turnover from the refining or extraction of, or generation of power from, fossil fuels and/or
      • derives more than 10% of its turnover from coal mining activities. Companies whose listing falls within the Oil & Gas sector are also excluded.
    • Alcohol – derives more than 10% of its total turnover from the sale or production of alcohol.
    • Gambling – derives more than 10% of its total turnover from gambling (including spread betting).
    • High Interest Rate Lending – derives more than 10% of its total turnover from high interest rate lending (high interest being defined as lending at an annual percentage rate (APR) of over 100%).


    In 2022, we also published a Climate Change Mitigation Policy seeking to categorise funds as ‘Article 8’ under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations (SFDR). The asset classes within scope are equities and the Policy focusses on the impact of portfolio companies on society and environment and how Troy’s investment process can mitigate the adverse contribution to global temperature change from its portfolio companies.

    Please also read our Troy Responsible & Stewardship Policy.

  • Process

    All of Troy's mandates are populated from Troy’s central investment universe. ESG factors are integrated within our bottom-up fundamental analysis which is applied to all of Troy’s strategies. Our aim is to evaluate how these factors can either help or impede a company’s ability to generate sustainable returns and affect its revenue growth, profitability, asset value and valuation over the long term. To achieve this, we combine in-depth stock specific analysis with thematic ESG research.

    Troy carries out its own in depth primary research and place significant emphasis on meeting with companies. We judge each company on its individual exposures to ESG factors, aided by third party research and our own materiality analysis. This means we are less reliant on opaque quantitative ESG scores or third party research that may be influenced by greenwashing. We do not have a prescriptive checklist for assessing ESG factors, instead our focus remains specific to each company, industry and our view of their materiality.

    In practice, ESG analysis is embedded in our in-house research notes and forms part of our monitoring process during meetings and reviews, which is particularly important given the dynamic nature of materiality. Governance and climate risk are systematically reviewed as part of the annual AGM voting process. Stock specific ESG integration also informs our engagement and voting activities where we feel a company is performing inadequately on a material ESG factor.

    As part of our investment research and monitoring process, ESG risks are considered alongside other types of risk such as business risk, financial risk and valuation risk. Where we believe ESG factors pose a material and probable risk to the sustainability of returns, we may choose either not to invest or to invest with a greater margin of safety by using engagement to mitigate the risks. We would seek to avoid investing in a company that is exposed to ESG risks which we consider to be intolerably high, particularly where our analysis reveals that such risks are not adequately managed and may impair our ability to generate good risk-adjusted returns for our investors. Our equity selection has remained absolutely focussed on quality companies.

    We conduct thematic research on systemic ESG risks and opportunities to better understand issues that affect a number of our holdings or to explore the exposure of our portfolios to significant and material ESG themes. This is particularly useful when developing our understanding of rapidly evolving social and environmental factors. Our thematic research often allows us to identify leaders and laggards on a given ESG topic, and guides our understanding of best practice against which individual companies may fall short. Thematic research also helps direct proactive engagement activities aiming to encourage the adoption of best practice, for example in relation to plastics, supply chain labour risk and climate change.

     

  • Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies

    Troy does not have a centralised ESG team, rather it is the responsibility and shared effort of all members of the 14-strong Investment Team. Collectively, they are responsible for the integration of ESG into Troy’s research and analysis as well as engagement and voting activities. We believe this collaborative approach results in well-informed debate and challenge, and enhanced decision-making.

    Stewardship and ESG research are deeply integrated into Troy’s investment research and decision-making and all members of the Investment Team have an understanding of the ESG risks of the businesses in which we invest. ESG analysis informs our opinions on the long-term prospects for every company we own and we do not see it as an adjunct or an overlay to our process.

    We strengthened our stewardship capabilities further in 2022 by appointing an additional Investment Analyst with specific stewardship expertise.

    Please see a list of the collaborative industry bodies that Troy is a member/signatory of:

    • 2008 The Investment Association (IA)
    • 2011 Independent Investment Management Initiative (IIMI) (previously New City Initiative)
    • 2016 United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)
    • 2019 The Investor Forum
    • 2019 GAIN (Girls Are Investors)
    • 2020 UK Stewardship Code 2020
    • 2021 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
    • 2021 Task Force for Climate – Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
    • 2021 The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)
    • 2021 Climate Action 100+
    • 2021 Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM)
    • 2022 Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO)
Fund Name DS SRI Style Product Region Asset Type Launch Date
Trojan Ethical Income Fund Ethical OEIC/Unit Trust UK Equity Income

Fund Size: £298.00

Total screened & themed / SRI assets: £1122.00

Total Responsible Ownership assets: £10953.00

Total assets under management: £14387.00

As at: 28/02/23

Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Policy:

The Trojan Ethical Income Fund employs negative screening in accordance with its published Ethical Exclusion Criteria in relation to fossil fuels, gambling, alcohol, high interest rate lending, pornography, tobacco and certain types of armaments. The Fund Manager is responsible for the implementation of the screening process by utilising Moody's ESG Solutions (previously Vigeo EIRIS) which provides us with research and analysis for monitoring the behaviour and activities of our holding companies. The negative screens are predominantly based on revenue thresholds and are not impacted by valuation or other factors.

The Ethical Exclusion Criteria is as follows:

  • Armaments –
    • generates more than 10% of its total turnover from strategic military supplies relating to conventional weapons and/or
    • produces key parts of, or provides services for, cluster munitions systems, and/or
    • is alleged to have contravened the convention on anti-personnel mines in the last ten years and which has not addressed the allegations, and/or (d) manufactures products, or provides services, which are all or part of a nuclear weapons system.
  • Tobacco – makes more than 10% of its total turnover from tobacco products.
  • Pornography – derives more than 3% of its total turnover from pornography or adult entertainment.
  • Fossil Fuels –
    • derives more than 10% of its total turnover from the refining or extraction of, or generation of power from, fossil fuels and/or
    • derives more than 10% of its turnover from coal mining activities. Companies whose listing falls within the Oil & Gas sector are also excluded.
  • Alcohol – derives more than 10% of its total turnover from the sale or production of alcohol.
  • Gambling – derives more than 10% of its total turnover from gambling (including spread betting).
  • High Interest Rate Lending – derives more than 10% of its total turnover from high interest rate lending (high interest being defined as lending at an annual percentage rate (APR) of over 100%).


In 2022, we also published a Climate Change Mitigation Policy seeking to categorise funds as ‘Article 8’ under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations (SFDR). The asset classes within scope are equities and the Policy focusses on the impact of portfolio companies on society and environment and how Troy’s investment process can mitigate the adverse contribution to global temperature change from its portfolio companies.

Please also read our Troy Responsible & Stewardship Policy.

Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Process:

All of Troy's mandates are populated from Troy’s central investment universe. ESG factors are integrated within our bottom-up fundamental analysis which is applied to all of Troy’s strategies. Our aim is to evaluate how these factors can either help or impede a company’s ability to generate sustainable returns and affect its revenue growth, profitability, asset value and valuation over the long term. To achieve this, we combine in-depth stock specific analysis with thematic ESG research.

Troy carries out its own in depth primary research and place significant emphasis on meeting with companies. We judge each company on its individual exposures to ESG factors, aided by third party research and our own materiality analysis. This means we are less reliant on opaque quantitative ESG scores or third party research that may be influenced by greenwashing. We do not have a prescriptive checklist for assessing ESG factors, instead our focus remains specific to each company, industry and our view of their materiality.

In practice, ESG analysis is embedded in our in-house research notes and forms part of our monitoring process during meetings and reviews, which is particularly important given the dynamic nature of materiality. Governance and climate risk are systematically reviewed as part of the annual AGM voting process. Stock specific ESG integration also informs our engagement and voting activities where we feel a company is performing inadequately on a material ESG factor.

As part of our investment research and monitoring process, ESG risks are considered alongside other types of risk such as business risk, financial risk and valuation risk. Where we believe ESG factors pose a material and probable risk to the sustainability of returns, we may choose either not to invest or to invest with a greater margin of safety by using engagement to mitigate the risks. We would seek to avoid investing in a company that is exposed to ESG risks which we consider to be intolerably high, particularly where our analysis reveals that such risks are not adequately managed and may impair our ability to generate good risk-adjusted returns for our investors. Our equity selection has remained absolutely focussed on quality companies.

We conduct thematic research on systemic ESG risks and opportunities to better understand issues that affect a number of our holdings or to explore the exposure of our portfolios to significant and material ESG themes. This is particularly useful when developing our understanding of rapidly evolving social and environmental factors. Our thematic research often allows us to identify leaders and laggards on a given ESG topic, and guides our understanding of best practice against which individual companies may fall short. Thematic research also helps direct proactive engagement activities aiming to encourage the adoption of best practice, for example in relation to plastics, supply chain labour risk and climate change.

 

Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies

Troy does not have a centralised ESG team, rather it is the responsibility and shared effort of all members of the 14-strong Investment Team. Collectively, they are responsible for the integration of ESG into Troy’s research and analysis as well as engagement and voting activities. We believe this collaborative approach results in well-informed debate and challenge, and enhanced decision-making.

Stewardship and ESG research are deeply integrated into Troy’s investment research and decision-making and all members of the Investment Team have an understanding of the ESG risks of the businesses in which we invest. ESG analysis informs our opinions on the long-term prospects for every company we own and we do not see it as an adjunct or an overlay to our process.

We strengthened our stewardship capabilities further in 2022 by appointing an additional Investment Analyst with specific stewardship expertise.

Please see a list of the collaborative industry bodies that Troy is a member/signatory of:

  • 2008 The Investment Association (IA)
  • 2011 Independent Investment Management Initiative (IIMI) (previously New City Initiative)
  • 2016 United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI)
  • 2019 The Investor Forum
  • 2019 GAIN (Girls Are Investors)
  • 2020 UK Stewardship Code 2020
  • 2021 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
  • 2021 Task Force for Climate – Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
  • 2021 The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)
  • 2021 Climate Action 100+
  • 2021 Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM)
  • 2022 Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO)

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