Triodos Bank UK has launched a thematic fund investing in companies that it says will improve the wellbeing and development of children worldwide.
The Triodos Future Generations Fund invests in 34 small and medium-sized listed companies that fit into one of the fund’s five themes.
Each company is focused on either health and wellbeing, education, equal opportunity, access to basic services, or safety.
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Triodos Bank UK launches its Future Generations fund which will invest in companies focused on children’s wellbeing
Nearly a quarter of the fund is held in healthcare, followed by consumer staples and consumer discretionary companies.
The fund’s top holding is Hologic, a US-based company that develops, manufactures and supplies diagnostic products focused on women’s wellbeing.
Other portfolio companies include US education services provider Stride and Sobi, a Swedish company focused on treatments for rare diseases.
Fund manager Sjoerd Rozing said: ‘An increasing number of companies are no longer just looking at shareholder value, but at the interests of all stakeholders.
‘We believe future generations belong on that list of stakeholders, and this is why the fund has been set up to support that long-term vision.’
The Future Generations Fund has been open to European investors and UK institutional investors since March 2022.
Now it will be available to UK investors through investment platforms, or directly from Triodos Bank, where it can be included within a Stocks and Shares Isa.
Investors can put in as little as £25 per month and Triodos will charge 0.4 per cent on a balance of up to and including £250,000 per annum.
It will charge 0.2 per cent on balances of £250,000.01 and over and there is an ongoing charge of 1.1 per cent.
It is the fourth Triodos fund to be made available to UK retail investors, joining its global equities impact fund, pioneer impact, and sterling bond fund.
Appetite for environmental, social and governmental (ESG) funds has waned in recent years, as poor performance and claims of greenwashing pushed investors to look elsewhere.
Recent figures from Calastone showed global investors pulled £8billion from ESG funds in 2023, and £940million in the UK alone.
But unlike other ESG funds, Triodos Future Generations said it will donate 0.1 per cent of the fund’s net asset value to support Unicef’s ‘building bricks for the future’ programme in Côte d’Ivoire.
This donation does not affect the results of the fund, says Triodos.
Sandra Visscher, executive director UNICEF Luxembourg, said: ‘While children account for nearly one-third of the world’s population, investors’ human rights policies seldom reflect the special considerations businesses need to make to respect children’s rights.
‘We believe that this collaboration helps to put children’s rights more clearly on the investor agenda and encourage integration of children’s rights into ESG decision-making processes across the investor world.
‘We believe that this collaboration helps to put children’s rights more clearly on the investor agenda and encourage integration of children’s rights into ESG decision-making processes across the investor world.’