Pictet Asset Management Global Megatrend Select
Focus: Mega trends including alternative energy
2019 Returns: 29.25%
Top Holdings: Visa, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Autodesk
For Hans Peter Portner, head of the thematic equities team at Pictet, the future is being shaped by a series of so-called mega trends. The firm focuses on 14 highlighted by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, including demographic development, urbanization and globalization.
But investors must stay alert: Themes within these trends are constantly evolving.
“We launched our fund at the peak of the first wave of investment in clean energy when this technology was not cost-efficient yet,” Portner said. “These assets depreciated quite a lot. We had to re-position the strategy to protect our clients’ investment by going more into energy efficiency.”
Since inception in 2008 it has generated an average annualized return of 11.5%, outperforming the MSCI World Index over that period, though it has underperformed on a five-year basis.
Lazard AM Global Thematic Focus Fund
Focus: Structural and secular changes transforming the global economy
2019 Returns: N/A
Top Holdings: Targeting companies with market cap above $1 billion
Lazard announced their thematic group back in 2003. The latest offering has a broad remit that will see it ride themes like digitization, environmental threats, societal anxieties and more.
The fund aims to fully integrate ESG concerns and will be run by the team behind Lazard’s Global Thematic Equity strategy, which the firm says outperformed the MSCI All-Country World Index by over 800 basis points in 2019.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.