In response to increasing demand for investments in transformational megatrends, Vontobel is expanding its suite of thematic funds for professional investors with the addition of a multi-theme equity fund.
The Vontobel Fund II-3-Alpha Megatrends offers access to multiple, structurally growing investment themes that benefit from technological, demographic, environmental and social long-term trends. The fund invests in companies that disrupt entire industries and have the potential to become market leaders with unique assets, strong business models and long-term drivers.
Supported by a team of investment professionals with diverse backgrounds and over 14 years of experience in thematic and quantitative investing, Portfolio Manager Daniel Maier makes high-conviction investment decisions in a diversified range of themes including Smart Farming & Food Technology, E-Sports & Gaming and Cloud Computing, amongst others. The theme and stock selection of the fund is actively managed by the investment team, who focus on pure-play companies with high theme exposure, finding opportunities outside of traditional benchmarks to achieve additional return potential and risk diversification.
Daniel Maier, Portfolio Manager and Head Thematic Investing, says: “With new technologies transforming entire industries, investors need to think about how to position their portfolios accordingly in the future. We believe these transformations will bring new opportunities, which are best captured by actively investing in structural growth themes and selecting companies with the scope to grow multiples of their current size.”
Thematic investing has been in favor with investors in recent years and growth in demand may further accelerate in 2021. This is according to a recent study conducted by Vontobel, which revealed more than half of the professional investors surveyed believe the pandemic has strengthened the case for a thematic approach, and 49 per cent plan to increase their exposure to thematic investments in the coming years.Vontobel has been managing megatrends portfolios for Wealth Management clients since 2017. The fund was first launched in September 2019 and was available to Wealth Management clients only. The fund has USD380 million assets under management as per 31 May 2021.
