Perpetual commits $60m to flagship | Australian Markets

Perpetual has added Osmosis’s flagship sustainability strategy to its accountable investment multi-manager program, investing AU$60 million within the sustainability-focused fund.

The Osmosis Resource Efficient Core Equity Fund targets risk-adjusted returns over the MSCI World benchmark, looking for out firms deemed more resource-efficient than their sector friends.

Osmosis chief govt Ben Dear stated the fund is ideally suited to traders with an environmental bent looking for better-than-benchmark returns.

Perpetual touts the fund as being ideally positioned to “benefit from the transition to a more sustainable global economy”.

Launched in 2017, the fund boasts an spectacular 30.69% return over the previous three years (to finish of February 2025), simply 3.2% shy of the benchmark MSCI World (USD) NTR, and 13.5% over the previous yr (2.2% under the benchmark).

Osmosis is a UK-based investment supervisor focusing on firms with confirmed sustainability credentials, assessing these publicly listed corporations based mostly on their carbon emissions, water consumption and waste era.

Its flagship Core Equity portfolio, Osmosis notes, “takes advantage of the inefficiencies of market cap weighted strategies by closely replicating the factor exposures of the underlying benchmark with the active exposure being delivered through the Osmosis Resource Efficiency Factor”.

The strategy delivers an fast discount in carbon, water, and waste possession in extra of 60% whereas remaining invested throughout the broader financial system.

As effectively, the Fund additionally excludes tobacco and any firms that breach the UN Global Compact’s social and governance safeguards.

The fund’s analysis insights are sourced from an in-house crew of environmental knowledge specialists tasked with analysing and rating massive firms “based on their sustainable actions rather than their targets or intentions”, Perpetual stated.

Greg Kynoch, senior analysis analyst Perpetual Private welcomed the addition of the strategy, which he stated was “aligned with our commitment to selecting specialist asset managers who incorporate responsible investment considerations as part of their investment strategies, in turn supporting the objectives and desires of a range of clients.”

“Osmosis’ disciplined approach to targeting more resource efficient companies within a benchmark-aware framework is an attractive inclusion within a portfolio seeking to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns while simultaneously delivering against select ESG-related outcomes.”

The Perpetual Private investment brings Osmosis’ Australian belongings below management to roughly US$2.4 billion (AU$3.8 billion). Its flagship Core Equity Range has attracted over US$17 billion (AU$24 billion) in belongings since its launch seven years in the past.

Perpetual Private is the wealth management arm of Perpetual Limited.