DPAM has launched a multi-thematic Asia Pacific equity sustainable fund: DPAM Invest B Equities DRAGONS Sustainable. This actively-managed strategy with a mid-cap bias seeks to identify future innovative and disruptive winners. The goal is to build a diversified portfolio of companies whose ESG reputation is solid or improving, and whose activity is linked to the long-term growth themes defined by the fund managers.
DPAM Invest B Equities DRAGONS Sustainable is managed by Quirien Lemey and Xiaorong Li, both part of the Fundamental Equity team led by Alexander Roose, CIO Fundamental Equity at DPAM. The team is supported by the internal buy-side equity team and DPAM’s Responsible Investment Competence Centre (RICC), led by Ophélie Mortier.
Regarding the multi-thematic approach, the fund managers have identified long-term investment themes, related sub-sectors and companies that should heavily influence our future society thanks to innovative solutions. Those themes, summed up by the ‘DRAGONS’ acronym, are disruptive technologies, rising middle-class, ageing & health, generation Z, O² & ecology, nanotechnology and security. The Asia Pacific equity portfolio centred on these seven themes will be continuously monitored in case of new developments, actors, etc. The fund managers also look at macro-economic trends to have a better view on the outlook for various countries and sub-regions.
The Asian continent features developed and developing economies and is still widely under-researched. Also, innovation is high on the agenda of its local companies. The demands of immense markets in the Asia Pacific, a region that holds 60% of the world’s population, and high appetite locally for entrepreneurship explain why this continent is a hotbed of innovation and disruptive ideas. Although much of investors’ focus on Asia and innovation has been on China and India, the entire region actually boasts intriguing and interesting companies.
“We will rely on the proven expertise of our in-house research team to uncover the many boundary-pushing, disruptive companies in this novel hunting ground. Asia Pacific continues to inspire global leaders to step outside of their comfort zone and use innovation in new ways. Hence our decision to focus on the region and add to our multi-thematic fund range”.
Quirien Lemey, Fund Manager at DPAM
DPAM’s sustainable strategies represent a total of € 14.9 billion (December 2020) in assets under management. In 2020, DPAM’s commitment to sustainability has once again been acknowledged at the highest level when DPAM received the top A+ rating from the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment for the fourth year in a row.
