Amundi has switched to a Paris-Aligned Benchmark (PAB) climate index on its Lyxor corporate bond ESG ETF and brought it under its own branding.
Following the changes, the Lyxor ESG Euro Corporate Bond UCITS ETF (CRP) will be renamed the Amundi EUR Corporate Bond Climate Net Zero Ambition PAB UCITS ETF.
In a shareholder notice, Amundi said CRP will switch from tracking the Bloomberg MSCI EUR Corporate Liquid SRI Sustainable index to the Bloomberg MSCI Euro Corporate Paris Aligned Green Tilted index.
Amundi said CRP, which has €921m assets under management (AUM), will keep the same ticker and total expense ratio (TER) of 0.14%.
The changes will take place between 10 January and 10 February 2023, Europe’s largest asset manager added.
Previously, the index only included issuers with an MSCI ESG rating of BBB or higher while negatively screening our issuer involved in controversial military weapons and those with a ‘red’ MSCI ESG controversy score.
Following the changes, the ETF will set an initial 50% target of greenhouse gas emissions relative to the Bloomberg Euro Aggregate Corporate index, followed by an annual 7.5% decarbonisation target.
The index will use optimisation to overweight companies with credible reduction targets or other positive carbon characteristics and will exclude bonds that have not reported Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions data.
CRP will continue to be labelled Article 8 under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
Amundi has merged several Lyxor ETFs with its own strategies in recent weeks as it continues to seek “economies of scale” following the acquisition of its French rival in January.
Earlier this month, Amundi said the Lyxor MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (E123) will be absorbed into the Amundi MSCI Emerging Markets II UCITS ETF (AEEM).
The French asset manager also said it was tightening the exclusionary criteria on its Amundi S&P 500 ESG UCITS ETF (S500) after swapping the current index for a more stringent equivalent next month.
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