MARKETING - The PRIDE Magazine by Liontrust - Flipbook - Page 6
CO VER S T O RY
INVESTING IN A
CHANGING WORLD
Peter Michaelis, Head of the Liontrust Sustainable Investment team, explains why they
believe the companies that will thrive in today’s fast-changing world are those that improve
people’s quality of life, increase the efficiency of resource use and create safer economies.
over the past three decades. If a man
was diagnosed with prostate cancer
30 years ago, he had a less than 50%
chance of living more than five years.
Today the odds are around 90%.
PETER MICHAELIS
Thirty years ago
the IBM PC XT was the pinnacle of
technology. Today, we have the iPhone,
which is not only much more powerful
but can also fit into your pocket and is
half a million times more efficient.
Advancements in healthcare have led to
dramatic improvements in life expectancy
6 - THE P R I DE - Issue 1 Winter 2017
These transformative developments not
only have positive impacts on society,
they have the potential to deliver
attractive returns for investors as well.
We invest in long-term trends like these
and the high-quality companies that
are profiting from changing the world
through such positive contributions to
people and the environment.
Sustainability is an increasingly important
theme for today’s consumers, who want
what they wear, eat and even drive
to both benefit themselves and have a
positive impact on the world around
them. This is fundamentally changing
businesses, from the high street retailer
through to industrials and even down to
commodity producers.
The origins of ethical investing date
back to the Quakers in the US when
they did not want to invest in alcohol.
The first ethical fund was probably the
US PAX Fund, which avoided investing
in companies that profited from the
Vietnam War.
There are three main approaches to
managing ethical and sustainable funds.
The traditional approach of ethical
investing is to avoid certain industries
as the Quakers did, mainly because of
the negative effects of their products,
with the classic examples being tobacco
companies and producers of weapons.
There are other, arguably more
interesting, investment approaches,
however. One is to invest in sustainable
themes, which can be referred to as