Rathbone Greenbank Global Sustainable Bond Fund

We buy global bonds issued by companies, governments, charities and non-governmental organisations. We invest across all types of bond and interest-rate markets, both at home and overseas. The objective of our fund is to deliver a greater total return than a benchmark we have created to represent the global fixed income market, after fees, over any rolling five-year period. There is no guarantee that this investment objective will be achieved over five years, or any other time period. You can find our fund’s full objective and investment policy in our Key Investor Information Document (KIID).

At the same time, we avoid investing in activities that make the planet or its inhabitants worse off, and actively support those projects that are doing good in the world. You can read our sustainability process in depth here.

Greenbank, an ethical, sustainable and impact research division of Rathbones that can’t be influenced by our fund managers, assesses all our investments against these positive and negative social and environmental criteria. Greenbank has a veto over all our investments to ensure profits never override sustainability. Our fund managers then compare prices to determine the best value bonds to include in our fund. You can view our latest case studies document here.

When picking corporate bonds, there are three assessments we make. First, we look at the economic environment to determine which industries we want to own and the duration, or sensitivity to interest rate changes, of our investments. Then we use the Four Cs Plus approach to evaluate creditworthiness. We assess:  

• Character: Whether a company's managers have integrity and competence
• Capacity: Ensuring a company isn't over-borrowing and has the cash to pay its debts
• Collateral: Are there assets backing the loan, which reduces the risk of a loan
• Covenants: These loan agreements set out the terms of the bond and restrictions on the company
• The Plus: We think differently to the market; sometimes contrarian, sometimes sceptical of orthodox thinking, but always opinionated

Notice: The F class is now closed to new investors.

For more information on additional share classes please email ram@rathbones.com