What does the Fund invest in?
The Fund will generally be exposed to international equity securities in alignment with the above indexes weighted equally. The Fund may have limited exposure to securities that do not directly form part of the strategy, including derivatives, where such securities provide similar performance (with matching risk profile) to the held ETFs.
The Fund may also hold small amounts of cash (or cash equivalents, that may include units in other BlackRock funds) for cash flow management purposes and may also invest in index futures contracts for cash equitisation purposes.
The Fund obtains exposure to the aforementioned securities either: ► directly, by investing in such securities; or ► indirectly, by investing in the Underlying Funds, which invest in such securities.
Labour standards, environmental, social or ethical considerations
The table below contains further details of some of the key screens applied by the index provider (including any specific threshold criteria if applicable). This table sets out a summary only. Revenue thresholds for certain aspects of an activity may be lower than shown below, and additional screens may apply.
Exclusion Criteria
Exclusion |
Exclusion Criteria |
Controversial Weapons |
Issuers engaged in the production of controversial weapons. |
Civilian Firearms |
Issuers deriving greater than 5% revenue from manufacturing and selling small arms and/or firearms for civilian markets.
Issuers classified as producers of firearms and small arms for civilian markets.
|
Tobacco |
Issuers classified as manufacturers/producers of tobacco.
Issuers deriving greater than 5% revenue from the production, distribution, retail and supply of tobacco-related products.
|
Thermal Coal |
Issuers deriving greater than 25% revenue from thermal coal extraction and/or thermal coal-based power generation. |
Oil Sands |
Issues deriving greater than 5% revenue from oil sands extraction. |
United Nations Global Compact Violators |
Issuers deemed by the index provider or a third party to have failed to comply with United Nations Global Compact Principles |
Companies are screened/excluded based on following criteria as identified by Sustainalytics: ► Sustainalytics’ Global Standards Screening Non Compliance (GSS): GSS provides an assessment of a company’s impact on stakeholders and the extent to which a company causes, contributed, or is linked to violations of international norms and standards. The basis of the GSS assessment is the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Principles. ► Controversy Rating: STOXX will exclude companies that Sustainalytics identifies to have a Controversy Rating of Category 5 (Severe). Sustainalytics assesses companies’ involvement in incident with negative environmental, social and governance (ESG) implications. Controversy is one key measure of ESG performance. A controversy is defined as an event or aggregation of events relating to an ESG topic. An event is assessed on its severity on a scale of 1 to 5 (1-Low, 2- Moderate, 3-Significant, 4-High, 5-Severe). The highest Event rating under a controversy indicator, automatically becomes the Controversy Rating for a given company. ► Business Involvement: Additional exclusion filters are incorporated, screening companies for involvement (based on revenue thresholds from direct activities or ownership of subsidiaries) in controversial weapons, weapons, unconventional oil & gas, conventional oil & gas, thermal coal, nuclear power and tobacco. These screens are explained in more detail in the index methodology document available on the STOXX website. In addition to above, for iShares Smart City Infrastructure UCITS ETF, companies are screened/excluded based on following criteria as identified by Sustainalytics: ► ESG Risk Rating: STOXX will exclude companies that have a “Severe” ESG Risk Rating, reflecting the highest level of unmitigated ESG risk ► Combination of ESG Risk Ratings and Controversy Ratings: STOXX will exclude companies with a “High” ESG Risk Rating, that also have a Controversy Rating of Category 2 or higher (i.e. Moderate, Significant or High) iShares Global Clean Energy ETF ► Sustainalytics’ Global Standards Screening Non-Compliance (GSS): GSS provides an assessment of a company’s impact on stakeholders and the extent to which a company causes, contributed, or is linked to violations of international norms and standards. The basis of the GSS assessment is the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Principles. Companies that are noncompliant with GSS are excluded. ► Business Involvement: Additional exclusion filters are incorporated, screening companies for involvement (based on revenue thresholds from direct activities or ownership of subsidiaries) in controversial weapons, military contracting, small arms, tobacco, thermal coal, oil sands, shale energy, artic oil & gas exploration. The level of business involvement is determined by Sustainalytics. ► Controversies: S&P Global uses RepRisk, a leading provider of business intelligence on environmental, social, and governance risks, for daily filtering, screening and analysis of controversies related to companies within the index. In cases where risks are presented, S&P Global releases a Media and Stakeholder Analysis (“MSA”) which includes a range of issues such as economic crime and corruption, fraud, illegal commercial practices, human rights issues, labour disputes, workplace safety, catastrophic accidents, and environmental disasters. The Index Committee will review constituents that have been flagged by S&P Global’s MSA to evaluate the potential impact of controversial company activities on the composition of the indices. If the Index Committee decides to remove a company in question, that company would not be eligible for re-entry into the indices for one full calendar year beginning with the subsequent rebalancing. Please refer to section 25.8 of this PDS (including the section titled ‘Information about exclusionary screens’) for further information about how BlackRock incorporates ESG considerations for the Fund |