Calamos Investment has launched the Calamos Antetokounmpo US Sustainable Equities fund for the European market.
The firm said the fund is aimed at European investors seeking a US equity allocation while looking to participate in low-risk, long-term opportunities that deliver positive societal impact.
With a sister fund initially launched in February 2023 in the US to invest on a global level, the sustainability focused UCITS will focus on US companies and is structured as a joint venture between Calamos and NBA basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo, both of whom are 50% co-owners. The fund follows ESG investment principles using the S&P Global Index as a benchmark.
The fund is managed by Anthony Tursich, James Madden and Beth Williamson, who have a combined 77 years of experience within the sustainable investments industry. They have developed an integrated sustainable process to evaluate and select what they deem as the highest-quality growth opportunities across market capitalisations. Using this process, ESG risk is evaluated across six categories: product contribution, life cycle innovation, operational efficiency, inclusive finance, ensuring health, and basic services.
As part of that process, the team incorporates the One Planet Prosperity framework, developed by Global Footprint, as a lens to better understand investment factors. The framework tracks progress on sustainable development using two metrics: the state of people’s prosperity and well-being, and the extent to which human demand fits without the planet’s resource budget.
“Over two decades ago, our team developed a proprietary research approach to identify companies capable of navigating and improving the landscape of human lives and environmental constraints,” said Williamson.
“One Planet Prosperity, a framework that describes the relationship between society’s desire to advance and the ecological limits of the planet, inspired us to develop our six criteria used to evaluate investment opportunities that we believe have greater growth potential than their peers.”
