Investment Objective

The investment objective of the Excellent ESG European Equity Fund is primarily to select, in an active investment style, from an investment universe of sustainable, predominantly European equities filtered according to environmentally, socially and ethically responsible criteria, a sufficiently diversified stock selection with the highest possible return.

Investment Policy

The fund invests in equity securities and rights (shares, participation certificates, cooperative shares, participation certificates and similar) of companies that have their registered office or the majority of their economic activity in Europe, promise an above-average return and meet our strict ecological, social and ethical standards.

Up to a maximum of 30% of the Fund's assets may be invested in equity securities and rights (shares, participation certificates, cooperative shares, participation certificates and similar) of companies that promise an above-average return, meet our strict environmental, social and ethical standards and have their registered office or the majority of their economic activity outside Europe.

Selection process

Our security selection is based on a certified, two-step selection process, which is based on negative criteria (exclusion criteria) as well as quantitative criteria and positive criteria (quality criteria).

In a first step, an independent Ethics Committee determines those environmental, social and ethical criteria that all securities in the fund's investment universe must comply with at all times, whereby the Ethics Committee applies particularly strict standards (exclusion criteria) to critical products and controversial behaviour, some of which go well beyond normal ESG approaches (such as, but not limited to, zero tolerance for the consumption of human embryos, zero tolerance for genetic modification of animals and humans (red genetic engineering) zero tolerance for gambling and pornography, and zero tolerance for torture and capital punishment). By applying the exclusion criteria of the independent Ethics Committee to individual stocks and issuers, a specialised ethics research team from Inrate, a Zurich-based independent rating agency specialising in sustainability, provides our hand-picked INVERA investment universe.

In a second step, the portfolio manager of our investment funds subjects the individual investments in the resulting investment universe to a fundamental data analysis. Those assets are chosen which, on the basis of quantitative and qualitative criteria, are expected to offer the best earnings and/or growth opportunities. In addition to financial criteria, the ESG profile of the individual investments is also examined. Finally, those investments are selected that score particularly positively in the individual ESG criteria and promise the best return and/or growth opportunities.

Investment Objective

The investment objective of the Excellent ESG Global Bond Fund is primarily to select, in an active investment style, from an investment universe of sustainable, mainly fixed-income government and/or corporate bonds with good debt ratings, filtered according to environmentally, socially and ethically responsible criteria, a sufficiently diversified range of securities with the highest possible return.

Investment Policy

The fund invests worldwide in bonds, notes and other fixed or floating-rate debt securities and rights denominated in a freely convertible currency issued by private, mixed-economy and public-sector borrowers that promise an above-average return, meet our strict environmental, social and ethical standards and have a credit rating of "investment grade".

A minimum of 51% of the fund's assets shall be invested in bonds, notes and other fixed or variable-interest debt securities and money market instruments of global issuers (governments, companies, international organisations) that have an S&P investment grade rating and meet our environmental, social and ethical standards.

A maximum of 40% of the fund assets may be invested in total in:

•  Fixed or floating-rate debt securities and money market instruments that meet environmental, social and ethical standards but do not have an investment grade rating, and
•  convertible bonds that meet environmental, social and ethical standards.

Selection process

Our security selection is based on a certified, two-step selection process, which is based on negative criteria (exclusion criteria) as well as on quantitative criteria and positive criteria (quality criteria).

In a first step, an independent Ethics Committee determines those environmental, social and ethical criteria that all securities in the fund's investment universe must comply with at all times, whereby the Ethics Committee applies particularly strict standards (exclusion criteria) to critical products and controversial behaviour, some of which go well beyond normal ESG approaches (such as, but not limited to, zero tolerance for the consumption of human embryos, zero tolerance for genetic modification of animals and humans (red genetic engineering) zero tolerance for gambling and pornography, and zero tolerance for torture and capital punishment). By applying the exclusion criteria of the independent Ethics Committee to individual stocks and issuers, a specialised ethics research team from Inrate, an independent rating agency based in Zurich that specialises in sustainability, provides our hand-picked INVERA investment universe.

In a second step, the portfolio manager of our investment funds subjects the individual investments in the resulting investment universe to a fundamental data analysis. Those assets are chosen which, on the basis of quantitative and qualitative criteria, are expected to offer the best earnings and/or growth opportunities. In addition to financial criteria, the ESG profile of the individual investments is also examined. Finally, those investments are selected that score particularly positively in the individual ESG criteria and promise the best return and/or growth opportunities.