Speaking at the Portfolio Adviser SRI event in London, the investment manager, sustainable and responsible investment at Alliance trust said, that the stronger focus on value and integration has created increased demand for the theme.
To back up the point, Brown pointed to figures by investment bank Berenberg showing that 65% of new food product launches in 2015 were in the healthy food sector.
It includes natural, free-from toxins and organic food and interest in these themes, said Brown, and is partly a consequence of the millennial generation growing up and bringing their values into investment strategy. Brown added that it was a mainstream rather than sustainability analyst at Berenberg that steered him into investing in the food trend.
The flipside to the health trend is the growth in obesity related diseases. By 2023 type 2 diabetes will have risen by +54%, according to a 2006 study called Cut the Waist, from the 2003 Health Survey England. Both of these stark facts -due to unhealthy diets- create a demand for insulin and dialysis. “We identify big themes – who wins, who loses, and build the portfolio around those winners,” explained Brown.
SRI targeted funds are noticeably increasing, with both JP Morgan and Whitechurch Securities launching new ESG funds recently. But while it is a rapidly growing trend, one of the big questions surrounding SRI is what the concept actually means and what it encompasses.
In Brown’s view, it could be about investment without compromise with people demanding investment returns but also wanting “pride in how those returns were generated.”
