Renewable energy funds lead green sector rally

Renewable energy funds led a rally in the ‘green’ investment sector during April, driving total green funds sales for the month to €118.4m, according to figures compiled for Responsible Investor by Lipper FERI, the investment data group. The rally followed March’s huge sell-off, which saw asset withdrawals of €293m ($453m) from the sector as a result of serious investor concerns about return prospects. In the April ranking for funds investing in pure ‘green’ themes such as, water, climate change, renewables and energy efficiency, the biggest grossing product was Swiss manager Sarasin’s New Power Fund, which collected an estimated €53.9m, to add to the €30.4m it took in during March.
KBC, the Belgian fund manager’s ECO fund Alternative Energy fund collected the second highest lot with €29.5m. Impax, the London-based environmental specialist, was third with estimated inflows of €27.2m to its Dublin-registered Environmental Markets Fund.
Outside of the top ten selling green funds, investors continued to pull money from the sector, however, with withdrawals of €106.2m from the remaining fund universe. In terms of overall assets the biggest ‘green’ fund remains Blackrock’s MLIIF– New EnergyFund with €4.47bn in assets. In second place is Pictet’s Water Fund with €3.28bn. Both recorded asset rises in April. Third in size is Julius Baer’s SAM Sustainable Water Fund with €1.4bn, which was slightly down on its March assets under management.
Belgian fund manager KBC maintained its recent strong run of sales in funds labelled “SRI” that have undergone environmental, social and governance screening. The KBC EquiPlus Head Start Sustainables 04 grossed an estimated net €208m for April, adding to sales of €302.2m in March.
The second biggest SRI seller for April was KBC’s own EquiSelect Sustainables Short Term USD 03 fund, which recorded sales of €73.8m.
Estimated net sales for the SRI fund universe during April were €295m.
Swiss group SAM’s Sustainable Water Fund remained the largest pure classified SRI fund with €1.4bn in assets, slightly down on €1.5bn in assets in March. In second place is AGF Valeurs Durables, part of Allianz Global Investors, which now manages €1.31bn, up from €1.25bn in March.
See downloads (left) for SRI and green funds sales charts