Pendal to launch impact strategy
Pendal has appointed an impact investment team that will establish its global equity impact strategy to tackle United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The investment manager said the team would join its environmental, social and governance (ESG) service, Regnan, and would be led by senior fund manager Tim Crockford.
Crockford would be joined by Mohsin Ahmad, Maxime Le Floch and Maxine Wille and would be based in the J O Hambro Capital Management office in London. The team previously managed the Hermes Impact Opportunities Equity Fund which Crockford launch in 2017.
The strategy is expected to launch in Australia in late 2020 and the team aims to generate long-term outperformance by investing in mission-driven companies that generate value for investors by providing solutions for the growing unmet sustainability needs of society and the environment. The fund will use the SDGs as an investment lens.
Pendal said the strategy would be managed to a capacity limit, agreed at launch, in order to safeguard liquidity and promote market-leading portfolio performance.
Pendal Australia’s chief executive, Richard Brandweiner, said: “One of our strategic objectives is to become a global leader in responsible investment. The move to 100 per cent ownership of Regnan in early 2019 and now the appointment of a specialist impact investment team demonstrates our commitment to delivering on this strategy.
“The impact investment market is currently worth over half a trillion US dollars and there is an obvious and growing demand from clients for this capability.”
Pendal said the driver for impact investments demand was the development of the SDGs and current forecasts required to meet the SDGs were investments of between $5 trillion to $7 trillion per annum until 2030.
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