La Financière de l’Echiquier (LFDE) is one of the pioneers in sustainable investment funds. Launched in 2010, Echiquier Positive Impact Europe (ISIN: FR0010863688) was one of the first investment funds to be aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)1.
The strategic objective of the fund is to invest specifically in those companies whose business activities make a concrete contribution to the fulfillment of the UN SDGs. To this end, the fund management acts as an active and long-term investor. When selecting companies, the focus is on assessing the measurable social or environmental impact of their business activities.
For three years now, LFDE has published a comprehensive annual impact report for Echiquier Positive Impact Europe in order to transparently present the concrete positive impact of the companies contained in the fund portfolio with regard to the achievement of the UN SDGs.
The figures for the past year are impressive: 73.7 percent of the cumulative sales of the companies included in the fund are impactful with regard to at least one of the UN SDGs.
For example, companies included in the fund invested a total of 5.15 billion euros in health and medical research (SDG 3). More than 500 million people gained access to digital payments for the first time (SDGs 8 and 16).
In addition, companies saved 215 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by using renewable energies or increasing energy efficiency (SDGs 7, 11 and 12). In total, the companies included in the portfolio planted 46 million trees to protect aquatic ecosystems (SDG 6) and enabled medical care for more than 1.6 billion people (SDG 3).
In addition to its focus on sustainability, Echiquier Positive Impact Europe also stands out for its financial performance. Adrien Bommelaer, fund manager of Echiquier Positive Impact Europe, says: “The fund has proven to be particularly resilient on a financial level. We have outperformed the benchmark index, the MSCI Europe NR, by around 20% in 2020”.
Since its launch, the fund2 has delivered a cumulative performance of 188.51%, compared to only 134.92% for the benchmark index (i.e. annualized performance of the fund of +9.79% versus +7.79% for the benchmark index), with a 5-year volatility of 15.04%.
Full impact report of Echiquier Positive Impact Europe
(1) This fund is mainly subject to capital loss and equity risk.
(2) As of 02.08.2021
| This article is based on information provided by LFDE. It is not sponsored content.
| All opinions expressed are those of the author. investESG.eu is an independent and neutral platform dedicated to generating debate around ESG investing topics.
