Ashmore Group launches Emerging Markets Impact Debt Strategy
- Dual objectives of financial return and measurable environmental and social impact
- Multi-billion dollar capacity, designed to help address critical and currently unmet needs within EM, which amount to a $24 trillion funding gap
- Strategy will be led by Simon Cooke, Head of Impact Debt, and overseen by dedicated impact team within the Blended Debt Sub-Investment Committee
Ashmore Group, the specialist Emerging Markets asset manager that manages US$46.2 billion as at 31 March 2025, announces the launch of its Emerging Markets (“EM”) Impact Debt Strategy (“the Strategy”).
The Strategy aims to deliver both a total financial return and positive, measurable environmental and social impact aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“UN SDGs”). It will be managed by a dedicated, specialist impact team within Ashmore’s Blended Debt Sub-Investment Committee, led by Simon Cooke, Head of Impact Debt. Simon joined Ashmore in October 2024 to take up the newly created role and brings with him over 13 years of investment experience in EM and impact.
The Strategy combines Ashmore’s recently established Impact Debt capability with its significant expertise and highly regarded investment process in EM corporate debt and sovereign debt. It has a sustainable investment objective pursuant to Article 9 of the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).
The Impact opportunity in Emerging Market Debt
With the funding gap to meet the UN SDGs estimated at $24 trillion in EM, there is a clear need for capital to be allocated to these markets to address critical and currently unmet needs. Until recently, the EM impact opportunity set was mostly constrained to illiquid private assets with limited scalability. However, over the past four years, a liquid fixed income opportunity has developed. The EM impact debt universe has grown from $75bn to over $600bn, tackling all 17 UN SDGs.
The EM impact debt universe is a subset of wider EM debt, which has consistently delivered superior long-term performance compared with developed market debt of the same credit quality. Every dollar invested in EM impact debt generates 2-20x the impact of the same investment in developed market impact debt, with the multiplier dependent on the UN SDG being addressed.
Impact investment approach
The Strategy will provide access to the entire hard currency EM impact debt opportunity set, enabling investors to deploy capital at scale through a liquid asset class offering material and transparent positive impact alongside attractive long-term returns. It will follow a best ideas approach, from both the impact and return perspective, focused on corporates, but with the flexibility to allocate to sovereigns and supranationals.
Every investment must pass both Ashmore’s Impact Assessment and Fundamental Assessment. Each potential holding will be rigorously assessed to ensure it contributes to at least one of the 169 UN SDG targets, generating positive outcomes such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing digital connectivity, and improving access to essential services, while not significantly harming any other UN SDG. Ashmore intends to report annually on the outputs and outcomes associated with every holding and the overall Strategy, enabling investors to assess performance against its impact objective.
Simon Cooke, Head of Impact Debt at Ashmore Group, commented: “We urgently need to mobilise trillions in private capital to plug the growing UN SDG financing gap in Emerging Markets. Our ambition is to develop scalable impact strategies with multi-billion dollar capacities that help address this need, while delivering market rate risk-adjusted financial returns. We are very excited to launch the first step towards that goal, the Ashmore Emerging Markets Impact Debt Strategy. The Strategy will target measurable impact and total return in a daily liquid asset class that offers investors an unparalleled combination of potential returns, potential impact, and potential scale within global fixed income.”
END
Notes to Editors
About Ashmore
Ashmore is a specialist Emerging Markets investment manager that has successfully managed its clients’ capital for more than 30 years. The business was founded as part of ANZ in 1992, became independent in 1999 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006. As of 31 March 2025, it manages $46.2 billion which is diversified by investment theme and by client. It is headquartered in London and has a network of 10 local offices, in Colombia, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UAE and the United States of America.
For more information on Ashmore’s approach to impact, see here:
https://www.ashmoregroup.com/our-capabilities/investment-approach/impact
About Simon Cooke
Simon Cooke has been Ashmore’s Head of Impact Debt since October 2024, having worked on sustainable and impact strategies in Emerging Markets and Corporate Credit since 2011. Simon previously worked at Insight Investment for 13 years as a Portfolio Manager and Credit Analyst.
Contact details
Cardew Group
+44 207 766 1212
Henry Crane
+44 7918 207157
Luke Bramwell
+44 7467 992924