L&G Global Environmental Enterprises fund

As Legal & General launch the new Global Environmental Enterprise fund, Sheridan Admans, investment adviser at The Share Centre, explains what he thinks of the fund.

"With the vast array of tracker funds available in the market, from ETFs through to unit trusts, it has become quite a task to identify the potentially brilliant from the average.

"L&G has recently launched the Global Environmental Enterprises fund (GLEE) which aims to profit from the long term global trends of continued resource depletion and increasing regulation and legislation to increase resource efficiency, an increase in global population and the increase in global wealth levels.

"It aims to drive returns from a rules based system that has a global equity screen developed in conjunction with Osmosis Investment Management, a specialist in this area.

"The screening process essentially aims to capture returns from companies that derive 50% or more of their income from energy efficiency, low carbon energy and water, waste and pollution control.

"The screening determines that a third of the fund is invested in North America, a third Europe and a third Emerging Markets. It also equally splits its portfolio across small cap, mid cap and large cap companies.

"This fund should not be mistaken for an ethical fund as it has no ethical overlays. It simply looks to benefit from three well established and accelerating trends. Looking for growth rather than considering ethics.

"We believe the passive fund manager expertise that L&G provides, coupled with the sophisticated process optimised by Osmosis research, offers a powerful argument for considering this global approach to investing based on the mega trends it intends to profit from."