CPR AM, a subsidiary of the largest European asset manager Amundi, launches CPR Invest – Circular Economy, an actively managed global thematic equity fund which aims to support the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy.
The fund adopts a multi-sector investment approach covering the entire circular ecosystem throughout the life cycle of a product. The fund thus aims to support the necessary development of economic models more suited to environmental issues such as global warming, the scarcity of natural resources and the loss of biodiversity.
CPR Invest – Circular Economy is managed by Stéphane Soussan and Anne Le Borgne, Thematic Equity portfolio managers within the Thematic Equities team at CPR AM. The fund extends CPR AM’s thematic range, which already brings together 13 investment themes representing more than €18 billion in assets.
The launch of the fund is based on the premise that the linear economic model is no longer sustainable from an environmental point of view. Based on the Extract – Manufacture – Consume – Discard scheme, it puts pressure on natural resources and biodiversity, fueling an uninterrupted increase in greenhouse gas emissions. A consensus is emerging on the need to foster a virtuous circularity based on sharing, reusing, disassembling, repairing and recycling products.
The fund invests in companies that adopt circular production and/or consumption models, or that offer circular economy solutions to producers and consumers.
The stocks that make up the investment universe (about 370 at the launch date) are divided into four segments reproducing the entire life cycle of a product:
- Circular supplies (bio-based materials, insulation products, green chemicals, renewable energies…)
- Circular industry (precision agriculture, non-plastic packaging, electric mobility…)
- Responsible consumption (organic food and alternative proteins, sharing economy…)
- Resource recovery (waste and water management)
Exclusion filters complete the investment scope on the basis of ESG ratings (internal to the Amundi group) and the monitoring of controversies (from external providers).
The management of CPR Invest – Circular Economy is constrained to reduce the carbon intensity and the biodiversity footprint of the portfolio compared to the levels of the investment universe.
Vafa Ahmadi, Managing Director, Head of Global Thematic Equities at CPR AM, commented: ‘The launch of the fund is part of a dynamic that is very favorable to the theme of the circular economy. The European “Green New Deal”, carbon taxes and quotas, or the limitation of plastic are, in fact, all incentives for companies to rethink their productive processes and to strengthen responsible consumption practices. We offer our clients the opportunity to invest in the advent of a more resilient economic system, set to become more widespread and offering growth opportunities across the entire value chain of a product.’
This launch is in line with the commitments of the Crédit Agricole group – of which Amundi and its subsidiary CPR AM are part.
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