Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has launched a new Global Innovation Equity Fund, which will invest in companies with strong cultures of innovation across the globe.
The Luxembourg-based SICAV I – Global Innovation Equity Fund will invest across geographies, sectors and the full cap spectrum and will not be restricted to the technology sector.
It will look to capture the innovations that lead to change throughout society.
The Fund aims to provide long term growth by investing at least two thirds in companies listed globally of all sizes whose business models are focused on and/or benefit from all forms of innovation. ASI said it believes these innovative companies are able to drive outsize investment returns by capturing the bulk of the economic value created by waves of innovation.
The Fund aims to outperform the MSCI AC World Index (USD) benchmark before charges.
“At ASI, we think that companies with an innovative culture can build lasting competitive advantages and benefit from profound changes in their markets or businesses,” says Andy Brown, investment director at Aberdeen Standard Investments. “Throughout history, successive waves of innovation have driven economic progress. Over the last 250 years there have been six major ‘waves’ of innovation –from steam power to automation, these waves tend to last decades. This makes them durable drivers of growth. By identifying these waves and finding innovative companies that will benefit them, we can make investment decisions that play out over not years but decades.”
The fund will be managed by a portfolio construction group (pod) within ASI’s Global Equities team, with access to ASI”s central ESG team as well as ESG analysts within the wider Global Equities team. ASI achieved a UN PRI Assessment of A+ for active equity in 2020.
