BlackRock has expanded its sustainable investing range with a eurozone equity ETF incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria, ETF Stream can reveal.
The iShares EURO STOXX 50 ESG UCITS ETF (ES50) has listed on the Deutsche Boerse with a total expense ratio (TER) of 0.10%.
ES50 physically tracks the EURO STOXX 50 index which offers exposure to the 50 largest companies across Europe that comply with STOXX’s ESG criteria.
The benchmark excludes companies involved in controversial weapons, thermal coal, unconventional oil and gas, military contracting, small arms and tobacco.
Companies are also screened based on Sustainalytics Global Standards screening, controversy rating, ESG risk rating and the bottom 20% of companies in the investment universe based on ESG scoring are also automatically excluded.
Excluded companies are replaced by eligible Euro Stoxx universe companies with higher ESG scores from the same ICB supersector.
ES50 is categorised as Article 8 under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
The ETF is 36.6% exposed to French, 27.9% to German and 12.8% to Dutch securities, with 25.9% operating in the financials sector, 15.2% in information technology, 13.6% in industrials and 11.3% in consumer discretionary.
A BlackRock spokesperson told ETF Stream: “BlackRock continues to expand its range of sustainable products, increasing the options available to investors interested in incorporating sustainability considerations into their portfolios.”
The firm launched the iShares MSCI World Quality Factor ESG UCITS ETF (IWQE) in April and the iShares MSCI ACWI SRI UCITS ETF (SAWI) last December.
Last December, MSCI halved the time it takes to delete companies from its sustainable indices for controversies and UN Global Compact violations.
The ‘fast-exit’ rule sees violator companies excluded in 45 days and covers 41 BlackRock ETFs housing $70.5bn assets under management (AUM), as of March.
