Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) is launching a global thematic fund to allow UK investors to invest across multiple themes.
The fund will be managed by Dave Barron, LGIM’s head of index equity and smart beta, and is benchmarked against MSCI’s world total return net index. It is structured as an onshore unit trust.
The fund's investment themes include technology, (with investment exposure to artificial intelligence, robotics and automation and cyber security), energy and resources (with exposure to battery value-chain and clean water), and demographics (including e-commerce logistics, and healthcare and pharma breakthrough).
The fund will include more than 400 stocks. The strategy for the fund is to invest in unique stocks not typically captured by traditional market cap weighted benchmarks.
James Crossley, LGIM’s head of UK retail sales, said thematic investing has risen in popularity in recent years because it is able to capitalise on societal changes.
He added: "We often hear from clients about the challenges of accessing ETFs and having to choose between specific investment themes, and in designing the global thematic fund, we wanted to make that decision easier.
“By providing a single point of entry to a diversified universe of companies, the fund offers investors access to a broad range of growth opportunities.
"We believe it to be an attractive proposition for advisers seeking differentiated investment ideas for clients and a unique and cost-effective way to invest in the themes that are shaping the future of our environment, work and society.”
sally.hickey@ft.com
