Guinness Global Investors has launched the Guinness Global Environment fund, targeting five key environmental resources.
The fund, which is co-managed by Jordan Patel and Jamie Melrose, invests in companies that benefit from rising demand for food, water, climate, waste and land. It holds 30 positions, each broadly equally weighted.
Patel and Melrose will use the quality-focused equity investing approach that Guinness applies across its fund range. This emphasises bottom-up analysis to find quality companies with sustainable free cashflow.
Will Riley and Jonathan Waghorn, who have 18 and 25 years of experience in thematic investing, will serve as advisers to the fund.
Edward Guinness, chief executive of Guinness Global Investors, said: “We believe that it is a great time to launch our Global Environment fund. Valuations are low and we have applied what we have learnt from the cycles in the environment sector to build a robust strategy that can identify companies benefiting from the long-term trend towards more efficient use of resources.
“Despite wavering government support for environmental initiatives in the short term, this is a long-term investible theme for the next 20 years and beyond."
Jordan Patel joined Guinness in 2024 and has 12 years of equity investing experience. He previously worked at Federated Hermes, where he served as deputy fund manager on the Biodiversity Equity strategy and as a senior equity analyst on the Impact Opportunities fund.
He said: “Environment is an attractive growth theme, with many mature, high-quality businesses helping address rising demand for environmental resources. This is a well-established phenomenon and has led to outsized growth for companies providing ecological solutions over the past decade.”
Jamie Melrose joined Guinness in 2019 and has been the senior investment analyst for the firm’s Sustainable Energy strategy. He previously worked at Berenberg as a thematic equity research analyst, specialising in battery technology, and at Railpen as an investment manager in sustainable ownership. Melrose is also a board member of the UK Sustainable Investment & Finance Association.
“We feel well placed to invest in the environment theme, leveraging our combined 23 years of experience covering sustainable industrials and the energy transition. We plan to focus on mature companies offering above-average returns on capital, repeatable business models, and long-term thematic growth,” Melrose said.