RI funds delivering success
Long-held views that investors who want to make values-based investments lose out in the long-term are being brushed aside by the finalists in the Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year Responsible Investment category.
Category winner, Australian Ethical chief investment officer, David Macri, said focusing on investment opportunities in businesses with strong ethics is critical to success.
"The incorporation of ‘ethics' into the investment process has contributed to its strong and consistent long-term performance," he said.
"It has been the main feature of the Trust for over 20 years and ensures consistency in our approach and style.
"Our Ethical Charter guides us to invest in certain sectors that other market participants tend to ignore or simply don't have the resources to research such as small IT stocks, biotechnology or medical devices.
"Despite the inherent riskiness of the small and micro-cap segments of the market, the Fund has demonstrated a risk profile in line with, or superior to, the overall market.
"This superior risk/return profile is a real testament to not only our investment philosophy, style and process, but to an excellent and highly experienced investment team which is focused and motivated on delivering sustainable outperformance."
BT Investment Management head of equities, Crispin Murray, said the success of the BT Wholesale Sustainable Investments Australian Share Trust, was based on the organisation's strength across asset classes, combined with the team's experience.
"We put a lot of store in knowing what to look for," he said.
"We're very clear in identifying what we think are the factors that drive success... when you look at the Ethical Fund there's a screen we apply that roots out certain types of businesses we don't want to invest in, and also identifies companies we think are doing a good job."
The success of the OnePath Wholesale Sustainable Investments Australian Share Trust, also showed the strength of the responsbile investments sector.
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