Eco friendly? You decide...

ALTHOUGH £1.9 billion investment fund JOHCM UK Equity Income does not market itself as green, it is dressed up as a fund that ticks all the ESG (environmental, social and governance) boxes.

On financial data feeds such as Bloomberg, it is classed as a fund ‘which promotes environmental or social characteristics’.

On FE Analytics, a funds database, the fund is also said to have ‘ESG characteristics’. And finally, on JOHCM’s own website, its focus on environmental, social and good corporate governance issues are all mentioned.

But when you look under the fund’s bonnet, its two biggest holdings are BP and Glencore, a mining company that last week was fined £281million for bribing officials in Africa to further its business interests.

ESG friendly? On Friday JOHCM said ESG was ‘an input, not a determinant of the investment outcome’. It also said ESG ratings for Glencore and BP were improving.