UK ethical planning group to open in Melbourne

A UK-based financial planning group specialising in ethical investment is to launch its Australian operations doors in Melbourne this week.

The Ethical Investment Company of Australia is founded by director of the UK based Ethical Investment Co-operative, Guy Hooker. The UK co-operative of independent financial advisers services individual clients, trade unions, charities and pressure groups.

Hooker, who has been involved in ethical investing for about 12 years, will take on the group's chief executive position. His role will include researching ethical UK and European stocks for the international division of portfolios. Three Australian directors have also been appointed to the group.

The arrival of the Ethical Investment Company of Australia onto the ethical investment scene marks the country's continuing interest for socially responsible investments (SRI).

"It is evident that in Australia ethical investment is being increasingly demanded by individuals and the corporate sector alike," Hooker says.

Ethinvest managing director and Ethical Investment Association co-president Ross Knowles says demand is coming from the ground up.

"It is a consumer driven phenomenon, there has been a major increase in interest from the community and investing public and this is the case overseas as well", Knowles says.

Hooker believes increased interest in ethical investments can be attributed to encouraging returns from ethical funds in Europe and the US, and the public's greater intolerance of environmental degradation and social injustice caused by irresponsible companies.

"They [the public] are using ethical investment as a way of calling these companies to account," he says.