EUROZONE EQUITY

Rollout of 5G presents opportunities for investors outside of the usual beneficiaries of the network

In a few short years, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been ingrained in the European retail calendar with outlets publicising their deals days or even weeks in advance. Gone are the days of hordes of consumers queuing outside shopping centres at 4am in a desperate bid to have their first pick of the sales with only a quarter of all Black Friday spending expected to take place in stores1. The queues have instead moved online, swapping the fresh air and elbowing for a comfortable chair, broadband connection and a few clicks of a mouse. With fears of oversaturation, Chi Chan, European Equities Portfolio Manager, asks whether the online market is still in its prime and identifies three companies involved in the online revolution.

Investor action on climate change will be a key focus at this year’s PRI conference, which for the first time, will run alongside the Global Climate Action Summit. Climate change is one of the highest priority ESG issues facing investors and the push to reduce carbon emissions is well underway. However, technological innovation is needed if we are going to meet the carbon emissions reduction targets set out by the 2015 Paris Agreement. In his latest note, Chi Chan, Portfolio Manager at Hermes Investment Management, explains how one company, Advanced Metallurgical Group (AMG) is playing its part in enabling a low carbon future. In 2015, national governments, private sector companies and local authorities across the world pledged to reduce carbon emissions as part of the Paris Climate Agreement. And although progress has been made – CO2 emissions have remained stable since 2014 – there is still a long way to go. According to the United Nations, adopting new technologies in key sectors, such as energy, agriculture, industry, transport, buildings and forestry, could reduce emissions by up to 36 gigatonnes per year by 2030. Our current holding AMG produces critical components for technologies that tackle CO2 reduction. Enabling a low carbon future Dutch-domiciled AMG is a global critical materials company that produces high value-add speciality metals. AMG’s development of products and processes to reduce emissions and improve fuel efficiency excites us greatly. That’s because technological progress enabling greater reductions in CO2 emissions is one of the main drivers of growth in the automotive, energy and manufacturing industries.

The push to reduce carbon emissions is well underway. But to meet the 2030 target set out at the 2015 Paris Agreement, technological innovation is needed. Here we explain how Advanced Metallurgical Group is playing its part in enabling a low carbon future. In 2015, national governments, private sector companies and local authorities across the world pledged to reduce carbon emissions as part of the Paris Climate Agreement. And although progress has been made – CO2 emissions have remained stable since 2014[footnote]“The Emissions Gap Report 2017,” published by UN Environment in November 2017.[/footnote] – there is still a long way to go. According to the United Nations, adopting new technologies in key sectors, such as energy, agriculture, industry, transport, buildings and forestry, could reduce emissions by up to 36 gigatonnes per year by 2030 “The Emissions Gap Report 2017,” published by UN Environment in November 2017. Our current holding Advanced Metallurgical Group (AMG) produces critical components for technologies that tackle CO2 reduction.