Winnersrationale

The demand for thematic investing products in 2021 was buoyed by the flood of interest in the equity market. Investors sought to obtain alpha by betting on long term trends such as ESG-enhancements, digitalisation and consumer sectors influenced by the global recovery from the pandemic.

As a well recognised thematic franchise in the region, Pictet Asset Management experienced significant inflows into its thematic strategies in 2021. The asset manager achieved a 62% YoY growth in its total thematic funds AUM by the end of October 2021, reaching US$85 billion worldwide, and an aggregate AUM of US$30 billion in its environmental themes, US$5 billion in consumer strategies and US$25 billion in digitalisation by the end of November 2021, as a result of strong client demand in these strategies. The context to this is that most of Pictet AM’s private banking distributors in Asia have onboarded the thematic funds and the firm has expanded to more than 10 wholesale distribution channels in the region over the past year.

Despite challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and the volatile market environment, the asset manager highlighted the performance of its Global Environmental Opportunities (GEO), Water, Premium Brands, Security and Robotics strategies which delivered a stellar performance and demonstrated long-term value and strong resilience against market conditions.

GEO invests in companies helping to safeguard the world’s natural resources. The fund achieved one-year annualised return of 35.94%, which is excelling its peers, and outperformed the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) — MSCI’s flagship global equity index — by 5.61%. Besides capturing strong alpha in 2021, the fund demonstrated a solid track record of a double-digit annualised return since the fund’s inception in 2010. Greatly benefiting from the market’s increasing ESG awareness, the fund more than doubled its AUM in one year, sitting at US$11.02 billion in AUM .

From a broader perspective as an outstanding thematic franchise, Pictet AM demonstrated its expertise by managing 15 thematic strategies with 13 single-themed equity funds and two overarching global investment strategies spanning across all the themes. Seven of these strategies accumulated over US$5 billion each in AUM by the end of November 2021. Eight of these strategies are included in the ESG/Green fund list by the Hong Kong SFC, making Pictet to date the asset manager with the most ESG equity funds in Hong Kong.

Since launching its first biotech thematic fund in 1995, Pictet AM has been a trend-setter in thematic investing and has steadfastly introduced new thematic ideas which generate consistent outperformance for its investors.

Pictet Asset Management is Asian Private Banker’s Best Fund Provider – Thematic Provider for 2022.