Brighton-based Pavilion Asset Management has launched an eco-friendly fund. A pension fund pooled vehicle (PFPV), it is one of the first of its kind catering for the growing interest in socially responsible investment.
The Pavilion Eco-Friendly Fund, which has a minimum investment of £500,000 (E819,000), will invest in UK equities following an environmental and socially responsible approach. The investment process is based on a preference strategy which combines positive and negative criteria to pick stocks whose economic activities are more environmentally and socially sustainable than others. Pavilion will use the EIRIS online service which selects stock from the FTSE All Shares index based on the environmental and social impact of their activities.
“We believe that socially responsible investment is set to grow rapidly over the next few months leading up to July when the requirement for UK pension funds to state SRI policy comes into force,” says Christopher Edge, chief executive at Pavilion.
“Obviously pension funds have to address this issue, and we think that we have the capability to offer them these product. Also, I believe that the fund structure itself, a PFPV, is quite unique in the environmental sector and will attract institutional investors.”