Marks & Spencer’s finance arm has launched its first ethical unit trust.
The M&S Ethical Fund, which will be jointly managed by Jupiter
Asset Management and Sinopia Asset Management, a specialist fund
manager in the HSBC Group, will ‘seek to invest in companies that make
a positive contribution to the community or environment’.
It will apply an exclusion policy to avoid companies that derive more
than ten per cent of their turnover from armaments, gambling, the fur
trade, tobacco or pornography and in companies that ‘conduct or
commission animal testing for cosmetic or toiletry purposes or make use
of child labour’.
Jupiter and Sinopia will use research and ratings from US-based
Innovest and will engage with companies directly on social and
environmental issues.
The entry of M&S into the market has been welcomed by Penny
Shepherd, chief executive of the UK Social Investment Forum, who said
the sale of an ethical investment product by a ‘highly trusted brand’
and high street retailer would widen the audience for such funds.
