Liontrust Asset Management : ABN AMRO Investment Solutions and Liontrust launch Global Impact Equities Fund

22 June 2021

ABN AMRO Investment Solutions and Liontrust launch Global Impact Equities Fund

Paris-based ABN AMRO Investment Solutions (AAIS) and Liontrust, the specialist asset manager, have partnered to launch the ABN AMRO Funds Liontrust Global Impact Equities Fund.

Increasingly, investors demand to see evidence of the impact of their investments. The Global Impact Equities Fund meets this demand. This is the second fund that Liontrust has been selected to manage for AAIS, having been chosen to manage the ABN AMRO Funds Liontrust Sustainable European Equity Fund in 2018. Both funds are Article 9 under the SFDR classification, meaning they specifically have sustainable goals as their objective.

AAIS has chosen again to partner with the Sustainable Investment team at Liontrust due to their proven investment process developed over the last 20 years and their track record of outperforming mainstream indices over the long term.

The Fund is managed by Peter Michaelis, Head of the Liontrust Sustainable Investment team, Simon Clements, Harriet Parker and Mike Appleby using the Liontrust Sustainable Future process. This combines negative and positive screening and identifying the key structural growth trends that will shape the sustainable global economy of the future.

The team, which manages more than EUR 12 billion within their fully integrated process, looks at the world through the prism of three mega trends - Better resource efficiency (cleaner), Improved health (healthier) and Greater safety and resilience (safer) - and then 21 themes within these. They invest in well-run companies whose products and operations capitalise on the transformative changes that are coming from the underlying investment themes.

Key features of the ABN AMRO Funds Liontrust Global Impact Equities Fund are:

• High conviction - a concentrated portfolio of 30-35 developed market stocks
• Higher impact companies - focused on well-managed companies with the majority of their products and services deliver a net positive contribution to make our economy cleaner, healthier or safer
• Enhanced engagement on impact measurement - making good companies better with a clear demonstration of lifecycle in effecting better understanding and disclosure of impact
• Diversification across sustainable investment themes

The managers expect a low turnover, with holding periods typically greater than five years.

Commenting, Peter Michaelis said: "An increasing proportion of investors care about how they make their money as well as how much money they make and the last two decades have demonstrated that integrating sustainability into stock selection can enhance returns. This high conviction portfolio focuses on the highest sustainability companies.

Engagement is integral to how we ensure we invest in high-quality companies. Engaging with companies on key ESG issues gives us greater insight, helps us to identify leading companies and is used as a lever to encourage better business practices."

ABN AMRO's Analyst, Laurent Bouin added:

The team is one of the oldest teams dedicated to ESG funds in London, and has a very good track-record on financial performance. Their experience in sustainability led them to move with us one step forward towards impact investing, knowing their impact methodology and taxonomy has been defined with Cambridge University, this is according to us one of the best possible combinations of financial performance and sustainability'.

About Liontrust

Liontrust Asset Management, which was launched in 1995, is a specialist fund management group with shares quoted on the London Stock Exchange with a premium listing and is in the FTSE250 index. Liontrust has £32.5 billion in AuMA (as at 16 April 2021).

About the fund managers

Peter Michaelis, Simon Clements, Harriet Parker and Mike Appleby are part of the Liontrust Sustainable Investment team that has a total of more than 200 years of combined investment experience.

Peter Michaelis is Head of the Sustainable Investment team at Liontrust. Peter joined the company in April 2017 as part of Liontrust's acquisition of Alliance Trust Investments (ATI), where he was Head of Investment. In 2001, he joined Aviva Investors, where he was promoted to Head of Sustainable and Responsible Investment in 2005.

Liontrust has won numerous accolades and awards for the performance of its Sustainable Investment team including: Investment Week Fund Manager of the Year Awards in 2020 for the Liontrust SF Cautious Managed and Liontrust SF Managed funds; Best ESG Fund (Liontrust SF Global Growth Fund) at the Portfolio Adviser Fund Awards 2020; Best Active Ethical/Sustainable Fund (Liontrust SF Global Growth Fund) at the AJ Bell Fund and Investment Trust Awards 2019; and Mixed Asset Fund of the Year (Liontrust SF Managed Growth Fund) at the FT Adviser 100 Club Awards 2019.

About ABN AMRO Investment Solutions

ABN AMRO Investment Solutions is the asset management division of ABN AMRO and one of the pioneers in multi-management open architecture and sub advisory, with more than 20 years of proven expertise in this area.

Committed to sustainable development, its approach and capacity are unique in the market, with a broad range of products and investment solutions that meet higher ESG criteria.

ABN AMRO Investment Solutions offer its customers investment solutions adapted to various needs, with a wide choice of strategies, giving them access to the best asset managers and exclusive boutiques, covering all traditional and alternative SRI asset classes and all geographic regions.

As of March 2021, ABN AMRO Investment Solutions managed €20.7bn.

More onhttp://www.abnamroinvestmentsolutions.com

Issued by Liontrust Fund Partners LLP (2 Savoy Court, London WC2R OEZ), authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 518165) to undertake regulated investment business. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. Do remember that the value of an investment and the income generated from them can fall as well as rise and is not guaranteed, therefore, you may not get back the amount originally invested and potentially risk total loss of capital.  The issue of units/shares in Liontrust Funds may be subject to an initial charge, which will have an impact on the realisable value of the investment, particularly in the short term. Investments should always be considered as long term.