River and Mercantile launches vary of SFDR-compliant sustainable fairness funds

The Article 9 R&M European Change for Better fund is managed by James Sym, whereas the Article 8 R&M Global Sustainable Opportunities fund is managed by William Lough.

Multi-asset funding agency Quilter Investors has seeded the funds by way of its £7.7bn Cirilium Active portfolios, deeming it a “diversification opportunity”.

River and Mercantile appoints Sym head of equities

The new methods will take a contrarian, valuation-oriented strategy and can undertake R&M’s Sustainable-PVT (S-PVT) funding philosophy, which considers potential, valuation and timing. The funds will give attention to decarbonising key high-polluting actions and industries, equivalent to building and journey, on the grounds these investments will make a constructive and demonstrable change for good.

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James Sym, head of equities at River and Mercantile, mentioned: “We want 2022 to be remembered as the year that the asset management industry started doing ESG properly. We will be investing in companies that we expect to make a big improvement in their carbon footprint, as well as those companies that enable this improvement for others. This fits well with our contrarian and valuation-orientated mindset.

“We are looking to buy tomorrow’s ESG stars at yesterday’s valuations.”

Paul Craig, portfolio supervisor of Quilter Investors’ Cirilium Active vary, added: “These new funds represent a great diversification opportunity for our clients. We are impressed by R&M’s differentiated approach to sustainable investing which avoids the typical ESG ‘darlings’, and consequently offers a strong alpha-generating opportunity.”

William Lough, portfolio supervisor at River and Mercantile, mentioned: “We believe these funds will make a real-world difference, offer attractive diversification benefits for investors and tap into return drivers which have a long shelf-life.”