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Sustainable Investment team

Our investment process

The investment process seeks to generate strong returns from investing in companies aiming to deliver profits through positive social and environmental impacts. The fund managers look at the world through the prism of three mega trends – Better resource efficiency (cleaner), Improved health (healthier) and Greater safety and resilience (safer) – and then 22 themes within these.

If a company has significant exposure to one of the themes, the fund managers verify how sustainable the rest of its activities are. For each company, the fund managers determine the ESG factors that are important indicators of future success and assess how well these are managed, via the proprietary Liontrust Sustainability Matrix.

Companies in which the fund managers invest will have robust business fundamentals with a proven ability to deliver high returns of equity (RoE) through sustaining margins and asset turnover. Typically, these companies have a maintainable competitive advantage through scale, technology or business model.

Funds managed by the team

The Liontrust Sustainable Investment team manages a broad range of funds across equities, bonds, and managed funds.

Funds managed by the team

Latest insights

More insights
Mike Appleby Mike Appleby
Gene therapy – a revolution in healthcare The evolution of gene therapy is now helping to treat and even cure some diseases while offering interesting investment opportunities.
icon 10 October 2024
Gene therapy
Chris Foster Chris Foster
Edwards Lifesciences: shaping the future of cardiac care Edwards Lifesciences provides minimally invasive solutions that are crucial to improving patient outcomes
icon 30 September 2024
heart health
Sarah Nottle Sarah Nottle
Intuitive Surgical – let the robotic Olympics begin The future of surgery will be one of collaboration between human ingenuity and robotic precision
icon 31 July 2024
Robotics
Chris Foster Chris Foster
Flying the flag for US smaller stocks Fund manger Chris Foster marks the one-year anniversary of the GF SF US Growth Fund and explains why he’s backing smaller companies now
icon 24 July 2024
US stocks

Meet the team

The team has been managing the Sustainable Future (SF) funds for more than 22 years.  A key differentiator is the fact all the sustainable elements are fully integrated within a single team. The team, which has over 200 years of combined experience, is headed by Peter Michaelis, who was previously Head of SRI at Aviva Investors and has been managing the SF funds since launch. The fund managers that joined from Alliance Trust Investments (ATI) as part of its acquisition were previously running the Sustainable Future fund range at Aviva Investors. The other lead equity managers are Simon Clements (who was formerly Head of Global Equities at Aviva Investors) along with Martyn Jones and Chris Foster who joined the management training programme at ATI as graduates. Fixed Income investments are managed by Kenny Watson (formerly at Ignis Asset Management), Aitken Ross and Jack Willis who also started their careers in the graduate scheme at ATI, and Connor Godsell. Harriet Parker leads on engagement activities across the team.

 

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"Over our first 20 years of managing the SF funds, our investments have been successful because they have provided something society needs.”

Sustainable Investment: Annual Review 2023

This Report highlights the team’s investment performance and investee company engagement in 2023 and their 22 sustainable investment themes, including those that will be key in driving forward the changes needed for the world to achieve net zero.

Click below to read the Annual Review that covers the Sustainable Future process, fund performance, and work across impact measurement and engagement during 2023.

Meet the tea

Awards and ratings

Professional Adviser Awards 2023 Best Responsible Fund Professional Adviser Awards 2023 Best Responsible Fund
Professional Pensions Investment Awards Sustainable Corproate Bond Manager of the Year Professional Pensions Investment Awards 2023 Sustainable Corporate Bond Manager of the Year
Professional Paraplanner ESG Solution Provider 2023 Professional Paraplanner Awards 2023 Best ESG Investment Solution Provider
Professional Adviser Awards 2022 - Best ESG Solution for Advisers Professional Advisor Awards 2022: Best ESG Solution for Advisers Liontrust SF Managed Funds
Professional Paraplanner Awards 2022 - Best ESG Investment Solution Provider Professional Paraplanner Awards 2022 Best ESG Investment Solution Provider
Citywire fund manager rating Citywire Manager Rating: A Kenny Watson
Fund Manager of the Year Awards 2021 IW FM of the Year Awards 2021: Managed 40-85% Shares Liontrust SF Managed Fund
Citywire fund manager rating Citywire Manager Rating: A Jack Willis
Citywire fund manager rating Citywire Manager Rating: A Aitken Ross
Fund Manager of the Year Awards 2021 IW FM of the Year Awards 2021: Global Growth Liontrust SF Global Growth Fund
Fund Manager of the Year Awards 2021 IW FM of the Year Awards 2021: Managed - Flexible Investment Liontrust SF Managed Growth Fund
PA AWARDS 21 Best ESG Solution Professional Advisor Awards 2021: Best ESG Solution for Advisers Liontrust SF Managed Funds