Impact
Opportunities Fund
Backing tomorrow's winners, today
The Federated Hermes Impact Opportunities Equity Fund is a pure impact fund which invests solely in measurable, sustainable impact. By identifying megatrends, it backs tomorrow's winners today and has active, best practice stewardship at its core.
Key fund elements
Fund performance
Performance to 31 August 2020 (%)
Cumulative returns
| Fund | Benchmark | Relative | B/m ex tech stocks | Relative ex tech stocks | |
| 3 months | 15.70 | 15.13 | 0.57 | 11.99 | 3.70 |
| YTD | 13.65 | 3.69 | 9.96 | -3.42 | 17.08 |
| 1 year | 30.18 | 15.44 | 14.73 | 6.49 | 23.69 |
| Since inception* | 13.69 | 6.46 | 7.24 | 2.28 | 11.41 |
Source: Federated Hermes as at 31 August 2020. Performance shown F share class USD Accumulating net of all costs and management fees since seeding on 21 December 2017, relative returns calculated arithmetically. Benchmark is the MSCI All Country World IMI index. Inception date is 21 December 2017. Benchmark and relative ex technology stock returns shown as currently the team do not invest in technology stocks. This shows the performance of the fund against the benchmark when excluding these stocks from the benchmark. Shown for illustrative purposes only. *Annualised Returns.
| 31/08/19 – 31/08/20 |
31/08/18 – 31/08/19 |
31/08/17 – 31/08/18 |
31/08/16 – 31/08/17 |
31/08/15 – 31/08/16 |
|
| Fund | 30.18 | -4.38 | – | – | – |
Source: Federated Hermes as at 31 August 2020. Performance shown F share class USD Accumulating net of all costs and management fees since seeding on 21 December 2017, relative returns calculated arithmetically. Benchmark is the MSCI All Country World IMI index. Inception date is 21 December 2017. Benchmark and relative ex technology stock returns shown as currently the team do not invest in technology stocks. This shows the performance of the fund against the benchmark when excluding these stocks from the benchmark. Shown for illustrative purposes only.
| Fund | Category | Morningstar peer group quartile rankings | Quartile ranking | Position | # Funds |
| Federated Hermes Impact Opportunities Equity Fund | EAA OE Global Flex-Cap Equity | Year to date | 1 | 44 | 296 |
| 1 year | 1 | 27 | 288 | ||
| Since inception | 1 | 16 | 249 |
Fund inception: 22/12/2017. Fund F share class USD Accumulating. Fund primary benchmark: MSCI All Country World IMI Index - EUR.
Source: Morningstar, 31 August 2020
What are the risks?
• The value of investments and income from them may go down as well as up, and you may not get back the original amount invested.
• Any investments overseas may be affected by currency exchange rates.
• The performance of the Fund may have some dependence on the economic environment of emerging markets which may negatively affect the value.
• Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results and targets are not guaranteed.
Impact themes in the fund
We have identified nine key impact themes; each theme helps us to define, validate and report on positive corporate impacts. Together, they link with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an ambitious and universal set of objectives agreed by UN member states, which provide a plan to achieve peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. This enables us to focus on businesses whose positive impacts are aligned with the growth drivers of tomorrow – and therefore the interests of long-term investors.
Source: Federated Hermes, as at 30 June 2020
From sustainability challenges to impact opportunities
Energy Transition
Food Security
Health & Wellbeing
Engagement
We leverage the experience and expertise of EOS (Equities Ownership Services) at the international business at Federated Hermes, one of the world’s largest stewardship providers.
• Positive feedback-loop: regular engagement with portfolio companies functions as a positive feedback-loop and help drive positive change
• Tracking engagement: results-driven, progress-tracking approach to engagement
• Helping measure impact: engagement is a key component of the impact measurement framework
• Maximising impact: our engagement strategy is geared towards maximising positive impacts and mitigating negative impacts of portfolio companies
Measuring impact
Our multi-step impact assessment works to ensure that only truly impactful companies are included in our fund. We look to invest in companies which provide quantifiable impact that we can measure, monitor and report on. Nevertheless, we are aware that the disclosure of non-financial returns is evolving and it is easier for some companies to provide data than others, therefore we work with our invested companies to encourage and enable them to educate the market and investors.
Impact assessment
In our investment validation process we identify and analyse the impacts of potential portfolio holdings.
Team
Ingrid Kukuljan
Head of Impact Investing
Ingrid joined the international business of Federated Hermes in February 2020 with over 22 years’ experience in financial services. As Head of Impact Investing, she is responsible for the construction and management of the portfolios within the Impact Opportunities strategy.
Martin Todd
CFA, Co-Portfolio Manager
Martin joined the international business of Federated Hermes as a senior analyst on the European Equities team in March 2013 and is now lead portfolio manager of the Sustainable Europe strategy, and co-portfolio manager of the Federated Hermes European Alpha Fund, Federated Hermes Europe ex-UK Fund and the Impact Opportunities strategy.
Amélie Thévenet
CFA, Co-Portfolio Manager
Amélie joined the international business of Federated Hermes Impact Opportunities strategy team in September 2020, with the view to becoming co-portfolio manager once she has been certified under the senior managers regime. She joined from Jupiter Asset Management, where she was the fund manager of the Jupiter Asian Fund and co-managed a sharia-compliant Emerging Markets mandate.
Jordan Patel
Senior Investment Analyst
Jordan joined the international business of Federated Hermes as a Senior Investment Analyst on the Impact Opportunities team in July 2020. Prior to joining, he was an equities analyst at Titan Capital Management where he covered the energy and industrials sectors, with a particular focus on the renewables, clean technology and water.
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