Ethically Minded Investments & Hedge Funds

HedgeCo.Net (New York) – Growing concerns over issues such as global warming have meant that more investors are looking for an ethically minded fund, especially one thatmakes a profit.

An innovator in ethical investing is Charlie Thomas, head of Jupiter Asset Management, a Citywire AAA-rated hedge fund. Thomas has defied skeptics by proving environmentally friendly investing can produce strong returns in what was a relatively muted year for global fund managers.

Last year the average hedge fund manager return was 8.1%, way below the average gain of 26.5 percent in 2005. However, Thomas’ hedge fund Jupiter, returned 27.8% on the Jupiter Ecology fund last year, bringing the hedge fund’s assets under management to around $436 million.

Thomas, who has been a member of Jupiter’s socially responsible investment team since 2000, has a background steeped in environmentally responsible behaviour. Prior to joining Jupiter, he workedfor BP as an environmental policy adviser and also worked on the United Nations environmental programme.  

He told Citywire: “I look for opportunistic companies which are addressing environmental change.” Especially productive was his investment in the organic market, he said, “it is gaining momentum asmore and more people want organic, high quality products.” He screens stocks on six green investment themes: clean energy, sustainable living, green transport, waste management, environmentalservices and water management.

Thomas recently told Citywire he was heartened by news the European Commission wants to make its recent proposals on energy security and climate change, including a proposal to cut CO2 emissions by a least 20 percent, legally binding in 2020.

While this isn’t the usual criterion on which most investors make decisions, according to Standard and Poor’s, this ethically minded hedge fund has made a bid-to-bid return of 82.87% against the sector average of 48.88% over the three years to 2006.

Alex Akesson
Contributing Writer
HedgeCo.Net
Email: [email protected]