Opalesque Industry Update - Emergence, the French incubation fund providing seed funding for France-registered managers, and NewAlpha Asset Management, the proxy manager of the fund, announce the selection of La Financière Responsable, the sixth company selected for the sub-fund of Emergence dedicated to European equities and currently closed to subscriptions. The long only European equity sub-fund of Emergence invested EUR 25 million in a strategy specialised in SRI investments in the Eurozone. This contribution enables La Financière Responsable to ramp up the development of its flagship fund, and supplements the EUR 70 million already under management. It is the only SRI strategy that has been selected by the Emergence Investment Committee, comprising some of the most significant Paris-based institutional investors, at a time when institutional investors – in particular insurers – are increasingly favourable to an SRI approach to investing. Moreover, in France this strategy enables institutional investors to fulfill the non-financial reporting obligations set out in the Law on Energy Transition. La Financière Responsable stands out in the SRI sector on account of its original, innovative and grass-roots methodology. An investor with conviction, La Financière Responsable selects companies based on their strong growth (and therefore positive return) prospects over an average investment period of 3-5 years. In addition to the company’s financial health and strategy, the investment process also explores social, environmental and governance aspects through the analysis of more than 80 non-financial indicators compared to the relevant sector, grouped together within the Eco-social (Ecosociale) footprint. As such, this method fosters the diversity and relevance of the factors helping to strengthen the company’s overall performance. Formalised under the term Gestion Intégrale IVA©, this approach enables La Financière Responsable to thoroughly analyse the company’s value creation for its internal and external partners, and to considerably clarify its development. The quality of this non-financial research, all of which is carried out internally, has been rewarded every year between 2011 and 2014 with “Young Innovative Company” status, allocated to companies in operation for less than eight years by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Since it was founded, La Financière Responsable has been the only management company to benefit from the research tax credit related to SRI. For six years, La Financière Responsable has provided its clients – institutional investors, not-for-profit organisations and employee savings managers – with excellent financial performance through its funds. Since 1 January 2010, when the method was implemented, the strategy’s performance has amounted to 48.42% versus 22.22% for Eurostoxx 50, with a low turnover rate and much lower volatility than that of the market. For this sixth investment, as with the five previous investments in Focus Asset Managers, Financière Arbevel, Talence Gestion, Finaltis and Fideas Capital, the incubation fund Emergence provides its investors with the strong performance of selected funds and participation in their development through a revenue-sharing mechanism. La Financière Responsable is the 11th company to receive seed funding from Emergence through its two sub-funds, which have allocated a total amount of EUR 350 million since 2012. Through Emergence, international investors are attracted to French entrepreneurial managers. |
Industry Updates
NewAlpha & Emergence select LA FINANCIÈRE RESPONSABLE for its SRI Strategy
Thursday, April 14, 2016
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