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December 24, 2024

2024 Fixed Income Engagement Report

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December 24, 2024

2024 Fixed Income Engagement Report


Insight Article

2024 Fixed Income Engagement Report

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December 24, 2024

 
 

Across Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s Fixed Income group,we view engagement as a marathon, not a sprint. We believe in the importance of conducting value-added engagements and seek to play a part in supporting debt issuers to accelerate their sustainable transition.

 
 

1 The engagement figures and examples in this report relate to activities conducted by investment teams within the MSIM Fixed Income group. This information does not represent engagement activities led by Calvert Research and Management (“Calvert”), MSIM’s responsible investment affiliate, unless otherwise stated. Some team members of the MSIM Fixed Income group may, however, be dual-hatted by MSIM and Calvert.
2 This is based on MSIM’s thematic engagement framework (identifying common engagement themes across MSIM, but not limited to five thematic focus areas), and refers to the predominant themes covered during the engagement; however, our dialogues normally cover multiple ESG issues. Please refer to MSIM’s Sustainable Investing Policy for more information. Data refers to number of themes covered across all engagements.
3 Over the second half of 2022 and 2023, we engaged with issuers on Biodiversity, in sectors such as food & beverage, utilities & financials.
4 Sustainable Debt includes any labelled sustainable bond issuance, including, but not limited to, Green, Social, Sustainability or Sustainability-Linked bonds.
5 Engagement refers to meetings conducted over the 12-month period from July 2023 to June 2024, by MSIM’s Fixed Income group.
6 This is based on MSIM’s thematic engagement framework (identifying common engagement themes across MSIM, but not limited to five thematic focus areas), and refers to the predominant theme covered during the engagement; however, our dialogues normally cover multiple ESG issues. Please refer to MSIM’s Sustainable Investing Policy for more information. Data refers to number of themes covered across all engagements.
7 Calvert initiated the engagement in 2021, which is now run by the relevant Fixed Income ESG Analyst separately to the Calvert Corporate Engagement team’s activities.
8 Free Prior and Informed Consent – An Indigenous Peoples’ right and a good practice for local communities – FAO | United Nations For Indigenous Peoples.
9 EU CSDDD: European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, which came into force on 25th July 2024.
10 13 Core UNGP indicators formulated by the World Benchmark Alliance (‘WBA’) Corporate Human Rights Benchmarking Alliance, https://www. worldbenchmarkingalliance.org/research/corporate-human-rights-benchmark-core-ungp-indicators/.
11 Businesses are recognizing the threat of nature-related risks | World Economic Forum (weforum.org); WEF_The_Global_Risks_ Report_2024.pdf (weforum.org)
12 UN Biodiversity Conference 2022 (‘COP15’).
13 The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (‘TNFD’) have published a series of recommendations for companies to meet corporate sustainability disclosure requirements and be in line with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
14 Forest risk commodities as defined under the EUDR include commodities such as Palm oil, cattle and cocoa; and are high risk of being linked to deforestation. Per, the regulation, any company producing/ exporting these commodities on the EU market, must prove that the products do not originate from recently deforested land or have contributed to forest degradation.
15 First line management refers to company leadership responsible for managing risk, second line refers to internal risk management teams, and third line management systems include internal audit teams, providing independent objective assurance.

 
 
 
The Broad Markets Fixed Income team unites the expertise of single-sector research and trading teams across the Morgan Stanley Investment Management fixed income platform to identify what they believe are the best opportunities in fixed income.
 
 
 
 
 

Risk Considerations
ESG ratings are relative and subjective and are not absolute standards of quality. Ratings apply only to portfolio holdings and do not remove the risk of loss. There is no assurance that a portfolio will achieve its investment objective. Portfolios are subject to market risk, which is the possibility that the market values of securities owned by the portfolio will decline and that the value of portfolio shares may therefore be less than what you paid for them. Market values can change daily due to economic and other events (e.g. natural disasters, health crises, terrorism, conflicts and social unrest) that affect markets, countries, companies or governments. It is difficult to predict the timing, duration, and potential adverse effects (e.g. portfolio liquidity) of events.

ESG Strategies that incorporate impact investing and/or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors could result in relative investment performance deviating from other strategies or broad market benchmarks, depending on whether such sectors or investments are in or out of favor in the market. As a result, there is no assurance ESG strategies could result in more favorable investment performance. Fixed-income securities are subject to the ability of an issuer to make timely principal and interest payments (credit risk), changes in interest rates (interest rate risk), the creditworthiness of the issuer and general market liquidity (market risk). In a rising interest-rate environment, bond prices may fall and may result in periods of volatility and increased portfolio redemptions. In a declining interest-rate environment, the portfolio may generate less income. Longer-term securities may be more sensitive to interest rate changes. Certain U.S. government securities purchased by the strategy, such as those issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. It is possible that these issuers will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future. Public bank loans are subject to liquidity risk and the credit risks of lower-rated securities. High-yield securities (junk bonds) are lower-rated securities that may have a higher degree of credit and liquidity risk. Sovereign debt securities are subject to default risk. Mortgage- and asset-backed securities are sensitive to early prepayment risk and a higher risk of default, and may be hard to value and difficult to sell (liquidity risk). They are also subject to credit, market and interest rate risks. Municipal securities are subject to early redemption risk and sensitive to tax, legislative and political changes. The currency market is highly volatile. Prices in these markets are influenced by, among other things, changing supply and demand for a particular currency; trade; fiscal, money and domestic or foreign exchange control programs and policies; and changes in domestic and foreign interest rates. Investments in foreign markets entail special risks such as currency, political, economic and market risks. The risks of investing in emerging market countries are greater than the risks generally associated with foreign investments. Derivative instruments may disproportionately increase losses and have a significant impact on performance. They also may be subject to counterparty, liquidity, valuation, and correlation and market risks. Restricted and illiquid securities may be more difficult to sell and value than publicly traded securities (liquidity risk). Due to the possibility that prepayments will alter the cash flows on collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs), it is not possible to determine in advance their final maturity date or average life. In addition, if the collateral securing the CMOs or any third-party guarantees are insufficient to make payments, the portfolio could sustain a loss.

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