ESG Emerging Markets

Amundi and Quintet partner to accelerate sustainable investments in emerging markets

London, UK, September 7, 2021 by Amundi

• Quintet commits €200 million to Amundi Funds Emerging Markets Green Bond in line with broader focus on generating positive real-world impact
• Innovative vehicle catalyzes investments in environmentally friendly technologies and services across emerging markets

Amundi, the leading European asset manager, and Quintet Private Bank, the Luxembourg-headquartered European wealth manager, have entered into a partnership to accelerate sustainable investments in emerging markets, home to 85% of the global population.

To that end, Quintet has made €200 million in client commitments to Amundi Funds Emerging Markets Green Bond, which will be deployed as part of Quintet’s flagship discretionary offering. The Amundi fund was launched in 2020 and invests primarily in hard-currency corporate as well as sovereign green bonds in emerging markets such as Brazil, China, India and Indonesia. Quintet’s investment, which will be allocated in the third quarter, will nearly double fund assets from €250 million (as of end June) to €450 million. This follows recent seed investments by Quintet in other green-bond funds and reflects the €85 billion wealth manager’s focus on generating positive real-world impact through its investment activities.

Amundi Funds Emerging Markets Green Bond seeks to catalyze investments in environmentally friendly technologies and services across emerging markets, with an underlying strategy that seeks attractive risk-reward opportunities within both investment-grade and high-yield segments of the investment universe.

This open-ended strategy builds on the 2018 launch and successful closing of Amundi Planet Emerging Green One, the world’s first and largest targeted green-bond fund focused solely on emerging markets. That fund – which is expected to ultimately deploy $2 billion into emerging-market green bonds over its lifetime – was launched in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.

The global green-bond market has seen some €1 trillion in cumulative issuance since the first such fixed-income instrument was issued in 2007. Nearly €100 billion was issued in the first quarter of 2021 alone, the strongest three-month period on record.

While emerging markets represent more than half of all global carbon emissions and are among the most vulnerable to climate change, emerging-market green-bond issuance remains nascent. According to research by the IFC and Amundi, emerging-market green-bond issuance is nevertheless anticipated to double in the next three years compared to the previous three, with the market expected to exceed $100 billion in annual issuance by 2023.

Thierry Ancona, Head of Third-Party Sales, Distribution and Wealth at Amundi, commented, “We are proud to be working with Quintet, which illustrates perfectly our strategy to build long-term relationships across a range of services with quality private wealth managers. Amundi is committed to bringing together innovative investments to a wide panel of investors and Amundi Funds Emerging Market Green Bond bears the hallmark of this vocation.”

“We are delighted to partner with Amundi to support people and planet by investing in innovation,” said James Purcell, Group Head of Sustainable Investment at Quintet. “Amundi and the IFC are pioneers, and it’s an honor to join them to support positive change and improve the quality of life across emerging markets. We are steadfast in our belief that sustainable portfolios make better portfolios, and reaffirm our commitment to ‘sustainability as a default,’ seeking to generate positive real-world impact without sacrificing performance.”