Invesco launches Catholic principles ETF

Jan 30th, 2019 | By | Category: Equities

Invesco has launched the Invesco MSCI Europe ESG Leaders Catholic Principles UCITS ETF, providing exposure to a portfolio of European equities that are aligned with general ESG and Catholic principles.

Catholic Values ETFs

The fund screens out firms not aligned with Catholic principles relating to stem cells, adult entertainment, conventional weapons, abortion and contraceptives, human rights, and animal welfare.

The ETF has been listed in euros on Deutsche Börse Xetra and Borsa Italiana under the tickers ICFP GY and ICFP IM, respectively.

The fund tracks the MSCI Europe Select Catholic Principles ESG Leaders 10/40 Index which screens the parent MSCI Europe Index – a broad index representing large and mid-cap equity market performance across 15 developed market countries in Europe including the UK – according to MSCI’s ESG Leaders methodology.

This methodology evaluates corporate governance, focusing on the most relevant ESG factors by industry and risk exposure, to identify ESG leaders and laggards within each industry.

The process then eliminates those firms with less-favorable ESG profiles compared to industry peers while maintaining approximately 50% sector representation versus the parent index.

The methodology then excludes companies that are not in accordance with Catholic Principles based on the US Conference of Catholic Bishop’s SRI guidelines relating to the following areas: stem cells, adult entertainment, conventional weapons, abortion and contraceptives, human rights, and animal welfare.

Remaining constituents are weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization subject to a 10% cap per stock as well as a cap of 40% on the sum of all stocks with weights above 5%. The index is reconstituted and rebalanced on a quarterly basis.

The UK and France are the index’s largest country exposures with weights of 20.7% and 20.4% respectively, followed by Germany (15.0%), Switzerland (8.8%), and Sweden (7.4%). Financials account for a quarter (25.1%) of the index’s sector exposure, followed by consumer discretionary (12.3%), consumer staples (12.0%), industrials (8.9%), and technology (8.8%).

The ETF comes with an expense ratio of 0.30%.

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