Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Policy:

Objective

The Fund aims to provide capital growth over the long- term (5-10 years) by investing at least 80% of the Fund’s assets in the shares of European Sustainable Companies (excluding the UK) in any economic sector, or companies that demonstrate improving sustainable characteristics.
Sustainable Companies are those that the Investment Manager believes to have effective governance and superior management of environmental and/or social issues (sustainable characteristics).

Investment approach

• Uses a bottom-up stock selection process.
• Uses the full breadth of the eligible equity investment universe through a combination of fundamental research insights and quantitative analysis.
• Integrates ESG aspects to identify companies with strong or improving sustainability characteristics.

Benchmark FTSE All-World Developed Europe ex UK Index (Net)

Benchmark uses and resemblance

• The Fund is actively managed. The Benchmark is a Performance Comparator and the Fund will bear some resemblance to its Benchmark. The Benchmark has been chosen as it reflects the main investment universe and strategy for the Fund. The Benchmark will not apply values and norms based screening to implement exclusions that the Investment Manager applies to this Fund.

Policies

Main investment exposure:  At least 80% of assets invested in equities of Sustainable Companies, or companies demonstrating improving sustainable characteristics, that are domiciled, or carrying out the main part of their economic activity, in a European country (excluding the UK).

The Fund may invest in small capitalisation companies.

The Fund will focus on Sustainable Companies rather than companies that demonstrate improving sustainable characteristics (which are companies with a clear timeline for improvement and tangible and measurable ways to demonstrate that improvement identified during the sustainability assessment process). The Investment Manager identifies companies, that in its opinion meet the Fund’s sustainable investment objective through a sustainability assessment process. The process has three steps: 1) the exclusionary framework, 2) the identification of stocks with attractive sustainability characteristics using a proprietary ESG framework and company engagement, and, 3) the assessment of a company’s underlying fundamentals.

The Fund may also invest up to 20% of its assets in equities of companies that are considered less sustainable than those described above.

Step 1: The Fund excludes certain sectors, companies / issuers or practices from the investment universe based on specific values or norms-based screening policies. These policies set limits or full exclusions on certain industries and companies based on specific ESG criteria and/or minimum standards of business practice based on international norms. To support this screening, the Investment Manager relies on third party provider(s) who identify an issuer's participation in or the revenue which they derive from activities that are inconsistent with the values and norms based screens. Third party data may be subject to exclusion policy for the Fund is available at www.jpmorgan.co.uk/investor.

In addition the lowest scoring companies on each individual pillar (E, S and G) are excluded from the investable universe and the lowest scoring companies of the remaining universe are also excluded. These exclusions are based on the Investment Manager’s proprietary ESG score.

Step 2: The identification of Sustainable Companies, and companies demonstrating improving sustainable characteristics, is based on fundamental analysis and ongoing engagement with companies to understand how they consider ESG issues and also to try and influence their behaviour and encourage best practice. Fundamental analysis is used to better understand sustainability risks and opportunities that may impact a company. This analysis is also an important driver behind active company engagement and stewardship when seeking to positively influence business practices to improve sustainability. Further information on JPMorgan Asset Management's stewardship and engagement with companies including the Investment Stewardship Report is available at www.jpmorgan.co.uk/investor. A core part of this analysis is based on a proprietary ESG framework to assess each company’s exposure to, and performance on, material sustainability issues.

The framework comprises of:

• A quantitative score based on key ESG factors across sub-industries
• A fundamental score based on JPMAM research analysts’ answers to a checklist questionnaire with E, S and G pillars.

Each stock in the investable universe is ranked on each underlying pillar and is applied an overall ESG score. The ESG score is part of the assessment of a company's ESG characteristics, and allows the Investment Manager to track improvements and deterioration in these characteristics over time.

Step 3: An analysis of the company’s fundamental information uses both fundamental and quantitative research and seeks to understand the style characteristics of each company to identify whether it has attractive value, quality, and/or momentum characteristics.

If a company ceases to qualify as a Sustainable Company, the Investment Manager will engage with the company to determine the circumstances for ceasing to qualify. If the company can resolve the matter in the short term it may continue to be held in the portfolio. However, if not the security will be sold.

(Source: KIID, as at January 2025)

SDR Labelling:

Unlabelled with sustainable characteristics

SDR Literature:

• Consumer Facing Disclosure