Fund bosses pile into defence bets once deemed ‘laughable’ESG fund bosses battered by years of underperforming returns are rapidly redefining their mandates to make room for highly lucrative defence bets.
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and through the end of the fourth quarter of last year, the share of sustainable funds in Europe that devote at least 1% of their portfolios to aerospace and defence stocks has climbed by 37% for actively managed funds and 67% for passive products, according to data compiled by Morningstar Direct for Bloomberg.