Impax AM launches first Article 9 social equity strategy

investmentweek.co.uk:

CEO Ian Simm (pictured) told Investment Week about the firm’s plans to launch a social themes equity strategy earlier this year.

The strategy aims to generate long-term capital growth by investing in companies with strong corporate cultures that are responding to long-term, secular and social trends, the firm said. 

These include ageing populations, the increased rate of chronic disease, rising income in emerging markets, urbanisation and the impact of transformational technology across financial markets. 

CEO Ian Simm told Investment Week about the firm's plans to launch a social themes equity strategy earlier this year. 

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The firm has been running the £822.4m Global Equity Opportunities fund, a broad based global equity strategy investing both in environmental themes and social markets, since 2015.

«We have been developing quite a strong understanding of the social markets alongside the environmental markets through our broadly based global equity work, but we have now got sufficient conviction around the scale and potential to make great profits from social markets,» he said. 

Impax explained the investment opportunity to invest in companies that are benefiting from these societal trends is currently being «undervalued» by the markets. The strategy will look to back businesses that demonstrate «innovative, equitable and inclusive» cultures. 

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According to the firm, a strong corporate culture is a «powerful indicator» of a company's ability to outperform. 

Deputy CIO Charles French and portfolio manager Amber Fairbanks will co-manage the fund, using a