Fortis to open Green Tigers to retail investors
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Fortis Investments plans to open its Fortis L Fund (FLF) Green Tigers to British retail investors during the first half of this year.
The Luxemburg-domiciled Ucits III fund was launched in August 2008 for institutional investors. However, the group plans to register the fund for sale in Britain and add a retail share class.
The €20m (£17.5m) portfolio invests in equities, bonds, and money markets. (article continues below)
François Perrin, Fortis’s senior portfolio manager, says FLF Green Tigers focuses on companies that are developing clean and efficient energy technology, and sustainable food supply and mobility solutions.
Its investment universe also includes those operating in sectors such as air biodiversity, healthcare, and water. “The fund offers investors an exposure to key providers of solutions to environmental issues in Asia,” Perrin says.
Perrin, who heads the Asian sustainability strategy team, says the fund has a conviction portfolio and no “me-too” stocks. He prefers structural sector biases to a mainstream benchmark and aims to keep the fund diversified at a country, sector, stock and technology level.
Trina Solar, a solar technology supplier based in China, for example, is the top holding in the portfolio at 4.85%. Perrin says the company is well positioned to benefit from new solar policies in America and China.
Another top 10 holding is Nine Dragons Paper, which manufactures and sells packaging paperboard products in China. Perrin says that, compared with the major global paper mills, which are either debt laden or suffer from low return on equity, Nine Dragons Paper operates at lower leverage and higher profitability.
With China’s government pressing to preserve clean water, Perrin expects the group to benefit further.
“The fund has performed well as China, India and South Korea have allocated part of their stimulus to protect the environment,” he says. “We now find a growing number of interesting investment opportunities.”
