What is changing?

Under SDR, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) introduced a new set of rules around sustainability-related products including enhanced disclosures, anti-greenwashing rules and voluntary product labels. RAM supports the FCA’s goal of improved transparency and clarity in sustainable investing, particularly to ensure better comparability and retail consumer understanding. 

RAM has now notified the FCA of its intention to use the voluntary labels introduced by the FCA under the SDR. The funds will use the Sustainability Focus label. RAM has enhanced its disclosures to allow investors to understand its aims and processes in relation to the sustainability objectives of the funds. 

Effective 2 April 2025, the funds will use the Sustainability Focus label and all pre-contractual disclosures and marketing material will include language and graphics to demonstrate this. 

Other disclosure changes to the investment objective, investment policy and approach will also take place*.

All legal and administration costs associated with making these changes will be covered by RAM.

Tom Carroll, Chief Executive of RAM said: “RAM has long adhered to a research-led, bottom-up investment philosophy, focusing on qualitative factors that we believe are critical to identifying sustainable, long-term value. This process emphasises deep, company-specific research, considering factors such as management quality, corporate culture, and long-term strategy which promote our funds’ goals for a more sustainable world. We are committed to maintaining this assessment in our funds’ investment processes.”

Ends

For further information, please contact: 
Madhu Kalia, Rathbones Asset Management
07825 596302
Madhu.Kalia@rathbones.com

Sam Emery/Emma Murphy, Quill PR
07798 881 770
Rathbones@quillpr.com 

Notes to editors:

*Investment objective
We will add a more detailed sustainability objective to the Funds, which explains what the Funds are aiming alongside their financial objectives. The following language will be added for both Funds:

Sustainability Objective:

Promoting positive environmental or social outcomes by investing in companies that benefit stakeholders (as defined in the Impact Frontiers classification system) by contributing to one or more of our themes for a more sustainable world: 

These companies must meet the Greenbank Standard of Sustainability.

Due to the Sustainability Objective, the fund’s choice of assets is limited to a subset of those available globally and it may perform differently to funds or other investments that invest without these restrictions.

More information on our themes, including what we are seeking and how assets might achieve it (with examples) is included in the prospectus. 

Other changes, including to the investment policy and approach:

We will make additional disclosures to comply with the FCA’s requirements for funds that that use sustainability labels and to provide you with appropriate clarity and specificity. We will add language within our Prospectus to further articulate how our investment approaches seek to deliver the stated Fund investment objectives, whether financial or sustainable.

We will amend the presentation of the investment policies of the Funds to make it clearer how the various constraints apply and any exceptions. 

We will add a new section to explain our sustainability approach. This section explains the Funds’ sustainability objectives in more detail and describes how we select assets in line with our sustainability objectives described above.

The Funds’ potential investments are assessed using a multiple step process, and ultimately a scorecard which assesses an asset’s activity alignment (e.g. the products and services provided by a company or funded by a bond).  Our new disclosures will explain that at least 70% of the Fund has to achieve a score of 10 on our scorecard, which is the Greenbank Standard of Sustainability.  The remainder (up to 30%) may be held for diversification and risk management purposes in other assets that do not need to meet the Greenbank Standard of Sustainability but cannot conflict with the Fund’s Sustainability Objective.

Below is a list of impacted Funds and share classes:

Capital at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and you may not get what you originally invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. This information should not be taken as financial advice or recommendation. 

About Rathbones Asset Management:

www.rathbonesam.com    

Rathbones Asset Management Limited is a wholly owned, London-based subsidiary of Rathbones Group Plc. Through its subsidiaries, Rathbones Group Plc manages £109.2 billion of client funds (as of 31 December 2024), of which £15.8 billion is managed by Rathbones Asset Management Limited (as of 31 December 2024).

About Rathbones Group: 

www.rathbones.com

Rathbones Group Plc (Rathbones), through its subsidiaries, is one of the UK’s leading providers of investment management services for individuals, charities and professional advisers. This includes discretionary investment management, unit trusts, tax planning, trust and company management, financial advice and banking services. Rathbones manages £109.2 billion of assets (as of 31 December 2024). of which £15.8 billion is managed by Rathbones Asset Management Limited (as of 31 December 2024). Rathbones has over 3,500 people in 23 UK locations and the Channel Islands

The registered address of Rathbones Group Plc is 30 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7QN.

The information contained in this note is for use by investment advisers and journalists and must not be circulated to private clients or to the public.