We invest solely in measurable, sustainable impact. By identifying megatrends, the strategy backs tomorrow's winners today and has active, best practice stewardship at its core.
Key elements
Presenting the Federated Hermes Impact Opportunities Equity Fund
We look at the portfolio from five angles to see what makes it different to its peers and why impact investing is more topical than ever.
Impact themes
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 31 December 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.
From SDG to opportunity
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an ambitious set of global objectives aiming to create prosperity for all and safeguard the planet by 2030, were created from a development rather than investment perspective. However, believing they can be a powerful way of identifying impactful companies, we created the Federated Hermes SDG Taxonomy to clearly demonstrate connections between the goals and investment opportunities. Both precise and flexible, the taxonomy is a living piece of research targeting impact leaders – today and tomorrow.
Impact assessment
In our investment validation process we identify and analyse the impacts of potential portfolio holdings.
Team
Ingrid Kukuljan
Head of Impact & Sustainable 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.
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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