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Combining attractive fundamentals and good or improving ESG characteristics

Looking at the extreme market events of the past 12 months can provide some valuable insights for investors.

We examine how ESG factors have behaved during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Combining attractive fundamentals and good or improving ESG characteristics

We explore our Global Equities team’s unique investment style and whether their philosophy has changed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Our Global Equities team explain the benefit of being a global investor in turbulent times.

We explain why we adopt an integrated investment approach and how it shapes our research agenda.

Inflows into ethical funds topped £164m in July, up from £101m the previous month, according to the Investment Association Monthly Statistics for July 2018 from The Investment Association. Lewis Grant, Global Equities Senior Portfolio Manager at Hermes Investment Management, questions what ‘ethical investing’ really means, its implications and dispels investors’ common misconceptions. Let’s start at the very beginning When deciding whether to shift to an ethical investment portfolio, investors first need to go back to basics and set a clear definition of what they constitute as ‘ethical’. Since there is no universal definition, it can be surprising how much variation there is between investors. Exclusion or ‘negative screening’ perhaps offers investors the most direct approach to aligning their money with their morals. It is the oldest ethical investment method, and it’s easy to see why. Carving out entire sectors, companies or countries from a portfolio offers a relatively simple and transparent way for investors to express their particular ethical views and removes subjectivity.

Market behaviour can be extremely erratic which can create a huge amount of uncertainty when predicting the future. In this insight, Lewis Grant, Global Equities Senior Portfolio Manager at Hermes Investment Management, explains why he therefore favours a consistent, boring approach over one that is fuelled by sentiment and hype. Excitement in investment is rarely a good thing. It can create hype which in turn can lead to irrational behaviour. If we take Bitcoin as an example, hype around investment in the cryptocurrency drove the asset class to grow at a phenomenal rate and for a while, this sentiment-led growth may have left investors feeling excited about potential returns. Price momentum can act as an incredibly effective investment signal but it can also be a dangerous one. We believe it is important to remain emotionally unbiased as euphoria should not be the goal of investing. That is not to say such hyper-growth investments need to be avoided altogether, but instead understood in a risk controlled portfolio and as part of a disciplined, diversified approach.