Janus Henderson EUR AAA CLO Active Core UCITS ETF
Legal Entity Identifier: 636700NCI3JC3RBB6C51
A. Summary
The Fund is categorised as one which meets the provisions set out in Article 8 of SFDR as a product which promotes environmental and/or social characteristics and invests in companies with good governance practices.
The Fund promotes climate change mitigation and support for UNGC principles (which cover matters including human rights, labour, corruption and environmental pollution). The Fund also seeks to avoid investments in certain activities with the potential to cause harm to human health and wellbeing by applying binding exclusions. The Investment Manager leverages a proprietary ESG framework, utilising both third party data and proprietary insights, to produce securitisation issuer ratings. To encourage the adoption of better environmental and/or social practices the Fund will only invest in securitisations where the securitisation issuer falls within the top 5 of the 6 ratings produced. The Sub-Fund does not use a reference benchmark to attain its environmental or social characteristics.
The Fund aims to provide a return from a combination of income and capital growth over the long term by investing in an actively managed portfolio of AAA-rated collateralised loan obligations (CLOs). The binding elements of the investment strategy described below, that are implemented as screens, are coded into the compliance module of the Investment Manager’s order management system utilising third-party data provider(s), the output of internal research and sector assessment, and on desk monitoring of key parties of the CLOs on an ongoing basis. Sector assessment is to be based on collateral balance for CLO holdings. The exclusionary screens are implemented on both a pre and post trade basis enabling the Investment Manager to block any proposed transactions in an excluded security and identify any changes to the status of holdings when third-party data is periodically updated.
The Investment Manager will:
- Apply screens to exclude direct investment in securitisations based on their involvement in certain activities. Specifically, securitisations are excluded if they derive more than 10% of their collateral balance from tobacco, adult entertainment, thermal coal, oil sands or artic drilling.
- Apply screens to exclude direct investment in securitisations based on the involvement of key parties (the entity with most influence over the management of the collateral) in certain activities. Specifically, securitisations are excluded if the key parties derive more than 10% of their revenue from tobacco, adult entertainment, thermal coal, oil sands or artic drilling.
- Apply screens so that the Fund does not invest in securitsations where key parties are in breach of the UNGC Principles (which cover matters including human rights, labour, corruption, and environmental pollution).
- Leverage a proprietary ESG framework, utilising both third party data and proprietary insights, to produce securitisation issuer ratings. To encourage the adoption of better environmental and/or social practices the Fund will only invest in the top 5 of the 6 ratings.
The Sub-Fund also applies the Investment Manager’s Firmwide Exclusions Policy (the “Firmwide Exclusions Policy”), which includes controversial weapons, as detailed below.
Classification of issuers is primarily based on activity identification fields supplied by the Investment Manager’s third-party ESG data providers. This classification is subject to an investment research override in cases where sufficient evidence exists that the third-party data field is not accurate or appropriate. In any scenario where a portfolio position is identified as not meeting this exclusion criteria for any reason (legacy holding, transition holding, etc.) the Investment Manager shall be granted 90 days to review or challenge the classification of the issuer if appropriate. After this period, in the event an investment research override is not granted divestment is required immediately under normal market trading circumstances.
For the purposes of the AMF doctrine, the extra-financial analysis or rating is higher than:
- 90% for equities issued by large capitalisation companies whose registered office is located in "developed" countries, debt securities and money market instruments with an investment grade credit rating, sovereign debt issued by developed countries;
- 75% for equities issued by large capitalisations whose registered office is located in "emerging" countries, equities issued by small and medium capitalisations, debt securities and money market instruments with a high yield credit rating and sovereign debt issued by "emerging" countries.
The Investment Manager may only invest in companies that would be excluded by the screens described above if the Investment Manager believes, based on its own research and as approved by its ESG Oversight Committee, that the third-party data used to apply the exclusions is insufficient or inaccurate.
The Investment Manager may consider that the data is insufficient or inaccurate if, for example, the thirdparty data provider research is historic, vague, based on out of date sources, or the investment manager has other information to make them doubt the accuracy of the research.
If the Investment Manager wishes to challenge the third-party data, then the challenge is presented to a cross-functional ESG Oversight Committee who must sign off on the “override” of the third-party data.
If a third-party data provider does not provide research on a specific issuer or excluded activity, the Investment Manager may invest if, through its own research, it is satisfied that the issuer is not involved in the excluded activities.
JHI has chosen MSCI as its primary data source for ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) research.
Where coverage gaps are identified, specialist ESG Data vendors or inhouse research may be used to complement the ESG research. This helps ensure that consistent data and methodologies are used given an ESG measure per security type and hence can be compared correctly in the portfolio construction process.
The JHI Responsible Investment Policy, which incorporates JHI’s Sustainability Risk Policy, sets out the f irmwide approach to ESG Integration Principles, including JHI’s Responsible Investment Principles for long-term investment success, our approaches to Stewardship and Engagement and Baseline Exclusions applied to investee companies.
B. No Sustainable Investment Objective
This financial product promotes environmental or social characteristics but does not have as its objective sustainable investment.
C. Environmental or social characteristics of the financial product
The Fund promotes climate change mitigation and support for UNGC principles (which cover matters including human rights, labour, corruption and environmental pollution). The Fund also seeks to avoid investments in certain activities with the potential to cause harm to human health and wellbeing by applying binding exclusions. The Investment Manager leverages a proprietary ESG framework, utilising both third party data and proprietary insights, to produce securitisation issuer ratings. To encourage the adoption of better environmental and/or social practices the Fund will only invest in securitisations where the securitisation issuer falls within the top 5 of the 6 ratings produced.
The Sub-Fund does not use a reference benchmark to attain its environmental or social characteristics.
D. Investment Strategy
The Fund aims to provide a return from a combination of income and capital growth over the long term by investing in an actively managed portfolio of AAA-rated collateralised loan obligations (CLOs).
The binding elements of the investment strategy described below, that are implemented as screens, are coded into the compliance module of the Investment Manager’s order management system utilising third-party data provider(s), the output of internal research and sector assessment, and on desk monitoring of key parties of the CLOs on an ongoing basis. Sector assessment is to be based on collateral balance for CLO holdings. The exclusionary screens are implemented on both a pre and post trade basis enabling the Investment Manager to block any proposed transactions in an excluded security and identify any changes to the status of holdings when third-party data is periodically updated.
The companies in which investments are made are assessed by the Investment Manager to follow good governance practices.
The good governance practices of investee companies are assessed prior to making an investment and periodically thereafter in accordance with the Sustainability Risk Policy (“Policy”). The Policy sets minimum standards against which investee companies will be assessed and monitored by the Investment Manager prior to making an investment and on an ongoing basis. Such standards may include, but are not limited to: sound management structures, employee relations, remuneration of staff and tax compliance.
The Policy can be found at www.janushenderson.com/esg-governance.
In addition, the Investment Manager is a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI). As a signatory, the good governance practices of investee companies are also assessed by having regard to the UNPRI principles prior to making an investment and periodically thereafter.
E. Proportion of investments
A minimum of 80% of the investments of the financial product are used to meet the environmental or social characteristics promoted by the Fund.
The remaining investments, which are not used to meet the environmental or social characteristics, may include cash or cash equivalents, derivatives for the purposes of efficient portfolio management.
F. Monitoring of environmental or social characteristics
The sustainability indicators used to measure the attainment of each of the environmental or social characteristics promoted by this financial product are:
- ESG Exclusionary screens - see “G. Methodologies for environmental or social characteristics?” below for details on the exclusions
- Carbon - Carbon Intensity Scope 1&2- This represents the securitisation issuer’s or the securitisation key party most recently reported or estimated Scope 1 + Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions normalized by sales or income, which allows for comparison between securitisation issuers or companies of different sizes.
- Overall UNGC Principles Compliance Status.
- Ratings of securitisation issuers across the portfolio based on the proprietary framework.
- The Front Office Controls & Governance team provide ongoing assurance where required, that we can evidence investment products being managed in line with documented sustainability commitments where automated controls and/or 3rd party data are not available. Financial Risk review and challenge investment management in light of ESG-related risks, alongside traditional market risk metrics, and embed sustainability risk into the risk profiles. Investment Compliance implement exclusionary screening and monitor this on an ongoing basis in addition to elements of manual oversight where relevant.
G. Methodologies for environmental or social characteristics
The Investment Manager will:
- Apply screens to exclude direct investment in securitisations based on their involvement in certain activities. Specifically, securitisations are excluded if they derive more than 10% of their collateral balance from tobacco, adult entertainment, thermal coal, oil sands or artic drilling.
- Apply screens to exclude direct investment in securitisations based on the involvement of key parties (the entity with most influence over the management of the collateral) in certain activities. Specifically, securitisations are excluded if the key parties derive more than 10% of their revenue from tobacco, adult entertainment, thermal coal, oil sands or artic drilling.
- Apply screens so that the Fund does not invest in securitsations where key parties are in breach of the UNGC Principles (which cover matters including human rights, labour, corruption, and environmental pollution).
- Leverage a proprietary ESG framework, utilising both third party data and proprietary insights, to produce securitisation issuer ratings. To encourage the adoption of better environmental and/or social practices the Fund will only invest in the top 5 of the 6 ratings.
The Fund also applies the Firmwide Exclusions Policy (see “Firmwide Exclusions” in the "JHI Responsible Investment Policy”), which includes controversial weapons.
The Investment Manager may only invest in companies that would be excluded by the screens described above if the Investment Manager believes, based on its own research and as approved by its ESG Oversight Committee, that the third-party data used to apply the exclusions is insufficient or inaccurate.
The Investment Manager may consider that the data is insufficient or inaccurate if, for example, the thirdparty data provider research is historic, vague, based on out of date sources, or the investment manager has other information to make them doubt the accuracy of the research.
If the Investment Manager wishes to challenge the third-party data, then the challenge is presented to a cross-functional ESG Oversight Committee who must sign off on the “override” of the third-party data.
If a third-party data provider does not provide research on a specific issuer or excluded activity, the Investment Manager may invest if, through its own research, it is satisfied that the issuer is not involved in the excluded activities.
H. Data sources and processing
The Fund has chosen MSCI as its primary data source for ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) research.
Where coverage gaps are identified, specialist ESG Data vendors or inhouse research may be used to complement the ESG research in an effort to provide consistent data and methodologies per security type, enabling them to be compared correctly in the portfolio construction process.
JHI has built a centralised proprietary research alignment process; The central research alignment process aligns data at three different levels:
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- Entity Level,
- Position Level, and
- Fund Level.
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The research alignment and mapping capability is critical to JHI's ESG methodology, as we recognise a security could inherit the ESG information from the issuing legal entity, however, some ESG risks will be instrument specific.
JHI applies a series of Data Quality rules to ensure the integrity of the data being ingested into the central research alignment solution. JHI data that is not aligned correctly to the definition as provided by the data vendor is not ingested into the central cloud-based data warehouse and exceptions are raised. Remediation includes challenging the data provider or internal operations supporting internally managed Systems of Records. Where appropriate the Data Owner responsible and accountable for the data is notified through the internal Data Governance process to resolve outstanding exceptions.
JHI receives weekly automated data feeds from external ESG Data vendors, which are ingested into a cloud-based data warehouse.
Some data used to support binding criteria as received from external providers may be estimated data. For positions not covered by the external data provider, proprietary research may be used. This could range from proprietary research alignment against the external data vendor to written confirmation from the issuing entity that it aligns to the binding criteria. The appropriateness of the evidence provided is assessed by an independent body at JHI .
I. Limitations to methodologies and data
Data coverage is directly driven by the coverage of the underlying ESG Data Provider.
JHI’s internal data structure provides sufficient flexibility to incorporate proprietary evidence or adapt evaluations to future requirements.
JHI is aware of data gaps in ESG Research for non-traditional asset classes compared to mainstream asset classes such as equities and debt instruments.
J. Due diligence
The JHI Responsible Investment Policy, which incorporates JHI’s Sustainability Risk Policy, sets out the f irmwide approach to ESG Integration, including JHI’s Responsible Investment Principles for long-term investment success, our approaches to Stewardship and Engagement and Baseline Exclusions applied to investee companies. These exclusions are based on classifications provided by third-party data ESG data providers. This classification is subject to an investment research override in cases where sufficient evidence exists that the third-party field is not accurate or appropriate.
Each Investment desk completes their own due diligence processes ahead of making any investment decisions within their article 8 funds, using internal and external tools and research.
The Front Office Controls & Governance team provide ongoing assurance where required, that we can evidence investment products being managed in line with documented sustainability commitments where automated controls and/or 3rd party data are not available. Financial Risk review and challenge investment management in light of ESG-related risks, alongside traditional market risk metrics, and embed sustainability risk into the risk profiles. Investment Compliance ensure that ESG-related activities are managed in line with regulatory requirements and expectations and considered within our compliance framework.
K. Engagement Policies
In addition to the binding elements of the investment strategy described above, stewardship forms an integral and natural part of Janus Henderson’s long-term, active approach to investment management. Details of JHI’s approach to Engagement can be found in the ‘Responsible Investment Policy ’ published under the 'ESG Resource Library’ on the Janus Henderson website.
The Firm supports a number of stewardship codes and broader initiatives around the world and is a signatory to the UK Stewardship Code.
Janus Henderson has a Proxy Voting Committee, which is responsible for establishing positions on major voting issues and creating guidelines overseeing the voting process. The Committee is comprised of representatives of investments portfolio management, corporate governance, accounting, legal and compliance. Additionally, the Proxy Voting Committee is responsible for monitoring and resolving conflicts of interest with respect to proxy voting.
L. Designated Reference Benchmark
The Fund does not use a reference benchmark to attain its environmental or social characteristics.
Principal adverse impacts (PAIs)
As at 7 July 2025, the Investment Manager considers the following principal adverse impacts on sustainability factors ("PAIs") for this Fund:
| Adverse Sustainability Indicator | Metric | How is PAI considered? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse gas emissions | GHG Emissions | Scope 1 GHG emissions | Exclusionary screen |
| Scope 2 GHG emissions | Exclusionary screen | ||
| Carbon footprint | Carbon footprint | Exclusionary screen | |
| GHG Intensity of investee companies | HG intensity of investee companies | Exclusionary screen | |
| Exposure to companies active in the fossil fuel sector | Share of investments in companies active in the fossil fuel sector | Exclusionary screen | |
| Social and employee matters | Share of investments in investee companies involved in the manufacture or selling of controversial weapons | Exposure to controversial weapons (anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, chemical weapons and biological weapons) | Exclusionary screen |
| Violations of UN Global Compact principles and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises | Share of investments in investee companies that have been involved in violations of the UNGC principles or OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises | Exclusionary screen | |
'Where the translated version of this disclosure text differs from the English version, the original English version prevails'