The ING (L) Invest Europe Sustainable Equity Fund, which was launched before the New Year, invests in a portfolio of sustainable stocks – combining “risks and opportunities” linked to environmental, social and governance factors.
ING said the new fund is based on an institutional strategy which has been run since 2005 and which has quadrupled in size in the past two years.
The new ING (L) Invest Europe Sustainable Equity Fund, which is Luxembourg domiciled and Ucits compliant, was launched with around €40m (£33m, $54m) in assets under management and will be available to retail and institutional investors throughout Europe and Asia.
Hendrik-Jan Boer, head of sustainable investments at ING IM, said: “We believe that now is a good time to invest in European equities and we feel that sustainability is an important value driver. It is the key factor in identifying corporate quality.
“Academic and market research increasingly demonstrate that attention to the quality of environmental, social and governance factors can boost corporate profitability and competitiveness and thus the return of equity portfolios as well.”
The strategy’s portfolio consists of 50 to 90 names and ING said the team targets “the best stocks per sector” and allocates most of the risk budget to stock selection. The fund aims to outperform the mainstream MSCI Europe Net Index by 2% per year.
ING first launched a sustainable strategy in April 2000 and describes itself as a “pioneer” of sustainable investment in the European market, with these strategies now accounting for €1.5bn in its assets under management.
However, F&C Investments is probably better placed to lay claim to the pioneer status for this type of strategy in Europe, with its first sustainable fund, the £640m F&C Stewardship Growth Fund currently managed by Catherine Stanley, celebrating its 30th anniversary in June this year.
