The strategy is just over 12 months old, although First Sentier have been running a successful infrastructure fund for several years. This new strategy has been a couple of years in the planning after strong demand from the UK and Europe. It follows very much the existing strategy of delivering growth and inflation protection but with a sustainable overlay.
The investment process has a value and quality bias. In terms of value, they are looking for mispricing opportunities within the market. For quality they score between 1 and 10 and this includes aspects such as management, remuneration etc. In terms of sustainability, they have a separate ranking system which can exclude quality, so all aspects work together.
The fund doesn’t invest in energy mid-stream, so this includes transporting oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. This means when oil is performing well this tends to underperform. They will invest in freight but not where they are used to transport coal….read more