TRILLIUM :Asset Management’s Statement Regarding the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The invasion of the Ukraine is an unjustified and tragic assault on the Ukrainian people. Our thoughts and prayers are with those directly impacted and those working diligently on their behalf to stop the suffering.

At March 2, 2022, Trillium strategies have no direct equity or fixed income investments in Russia or Ukraine. Consequently, any strategy-level exposure would be indirect through individual equity holdings. Based on our review of firm-wide investments and given our historical focus on diversified, domestic equity and fixed income securities, we do not believe we have any significant sovereign, geographic or portfolio-specific risk to this war at present. If the conflict expands more broadly into Europe and the rest of the world, our analysis would need to be completed anew.

While eligible, Trillium does not currently have any exposure to the traditional energy sector. Consequently, as the broader energy complex appreciates in conjunction with this conflict, our performance versus stated benchmarks are likely to be impacted. As a bottom-up, fundamentally-focused asset manager, our portfolio management teams are very experienced with sector allocation, relative exposures and similar considerations when constructing portfolios, regardless of macro environment. Importantly, our investments in alternative and renewable energy are supportive to strategy performance during this most recent period of heightened volatility.

Looking forward, we note that it is difficult to make forecasts around exogenous geopolitical events, especially when one is as significant as the current invasion of Ukraine. Europe has not experienced a physical invasion of this magnitude since the end of WWII. Regional, national and international economies are significantly different, and more developed, since that time. Hence, parallels are lacking. One thing is clear. It is hard to overestimate the effect this war will have on the shape of international order and the flow of goods, services and capital.

The war has reversed – for now – significant upward pressure on interest rates, a development that has been more supportive of our strategies of late.

We are expecting that the macro environment will continue to evolve and vacillate around these competing narratives and have positioned our Core strategies to be diversified and blended between growth and values styles in keeping with our investment policies and representations to clients. Similarly, our growth and thematic equity strategies remain committed to outperformance, while maintaining adherence to our historical investment process and approach on behalf of clients and using their capital for positive social and environmental impact.

Chief Investment Officer John Quealy clarifies Trillium’s current investment portfolio exposure to Russia following its unjustified and tragic invasion of Ukraine. He also highlights how traditional and alternative energy sectors may impact portfolio performance and the expectation of continued volatility as these events―not experienced in this magnitude since the end of WWII―continue to unfold: https://www.trilliuminvest.com/news-views/trilliums-statement-re-russian-invasion-of-ukraine