Impax IFSL aims for £100m by third anniversary

Impax Asset Management is aiming to grow its IFSL Impax fund substantially over the next two years as countries put increasing focus on green technologies.

The fund, which launched just over one year ago, currently has £3m in FUM, but fund manager Simon Gottelier says he is looking to increase that to £100m by its third anniversary.

The Oeic invests in three environmental sub-sectors: energy, water and waste. Its goal is to outperform the Environmental All-Shares and the MSCI World indices.

Gottelier says despite the difficult trading environment, which saw the fund down 26.5% for its first year, it still outperformed both indices last year by 1.5% and 3% respectively.

The vehicle has picked up the pace further over the past three months, he adds.

"The performance in December and January was very strong - we outperformed by 5% and 6% respectively.

"But in reality, all we can really do is put our heads down and outperform our peers and benchmark, and we have done that since we established the fund."

The main setback in the past year, he says, came from the lack of clarity surrounding commodities markets, which hit many fund managers near year end.

"We did not foresee the collapse in commodities pricing, so as oil and metal prices fell we got caught out with a couple of our metal recycling businesses, which impacted performance," he says.

Focusing on the years ahead, he highlights the US market as one to watch for green investments, as large funding makes its way to those sectors from President Obama's stimulus package.

"The US is going to be one of the most attractive for growth in the coming years. They are really trying to stimulate businesses to get green projects off the ground," he says.

Companies with likelihood for success include waste management and certain green auto sector suppliers.

On the former, Gottelier says: "If a company produces hazardous waste as part of daily business, it cannot just cancel the contract of waste disposal companies. There is a great deal of stability in their income stream."

On the auto sector, he adds: "We have recently spoken to suppliers of the auto sector and they are of view that next month may very well be the trough month in terms of inventory de-stocking and volume."