Superannuation fund, Christian Super has announced the appointment of Ethical Partners Funds Management, an independent boutique with funds under management (FUM) of $1.6 billion, for its Australian equities mandate.
The fund, which ethically screened all of its investments since 2006, said that Ethical Partners FM’s focus on ethical considerations as a core part of the investment process was an important factor in manager selection.
“We are delighted to be working closely with an organisation with which we share similar core values. We both aim to provide investors with good returns over the long term by investing in an ethical way,” Nathan Parkin, investment director of Ethical Partners, said.
“By focusing on the companies with the best practises when it comes to knowing where their products came from, who made them and what impact they had on the planet, we believe we are lowering risk.
“We generally have more confidence investing in companies that are ahead of the pack with respect to sustainability issues.”
Ethical Partners’ investment process focused on an assessment of the cash flow, balance sheet, management, social, environmental, country and industry risks for individual companies, the firm said.
“Our team has applied our investment process across more than 200 companies, which has involved assessing almost 3,000 individual data points and undertaking over 350 company meetings in the past year,” Parkin said.
Australia’s second-largest super fund has explained its approach to the Asian giant and how it is balancing underlying risk, adding that avoiding China altogether may not be a “doable strategy”.
New research indicates that industry superannuation funds are poised for significant growth, posing a challenge to traditional active managers.
Challenger reported growth of 190 per cent in lifetime annuity sales, having realised an “extraordinary” opportunity in retirement.
The ethical asset manager has launched an infrastructure debt fund in association with specialist manager Infradebt.
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