The world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, has launched a new fund for investing in companies related to materials that are essential for the low-carbon transition and opportunities created by decarbonising materials supply. The fund, BlackRock BFM Brown to Green Materials, which is available for UK investors, will be given the ‘Sustainability Improvers’ label under the UK’s Sustainable Fund Disclosure (SDR) regime. The fund will also apply BlackRock’s proprietary ‘SDR Improver Assessment’ methodology, which ensures that a minimum of 70% of the fund’s total assets are invested in equity securities that contribute to its sustainability objective. The materials sector includes metals and mining, cement, chemicals, steel, and construction materials. These companies should benefit from reduced operational costs and lower decarbonising capital requirements than higher carbon peers, Blackrock said in its press release. The fund will be managed by Evy Hambro, Olivia Markham and Hannah Johnson in BlackRock’s Thematics and Sectors team. Markham said: “We expect global adoption of lower carbon technologies will drive stronger-than expected demand growth for materials required faster than anticipated, and this will result in higher materials prices and better-than-expected earnings for producers.” This new fund is part of the same strategy that saw the European launch of the BGF Brown to Green Materials Fund in June 2023.
