Becketts launches Social Impact Portfolio
Beckett Asset Management has launched a new ethical investment strategy called the Social Impact Portfolio. The Bury St Edmunds-based asset management company currently manages more than £230m of assets and has created the portfolio in response to clients? requests.
?We recognised this to be an investment area of growing importance to many people and the Portfolio reflects our commitment to adapting to changing investment environments,? said Samantha Owen, one of Beckett?s Portfolio Managers.
?Ethical views can be quite personal and so we steered away from calling it Ethical. This strategy aims to invest in funds with a conscience.?
A diverse group of potential investors was asked to rank various criteria in order to identify the most common ethical requirements. The top three were Human Rights issues, Environmental abuse and Animal Testing.
?A clear set of rules has been made so that investors in the Social Impact Portfolio are fully aware about what negative factors are screened out in the fund selection process,? said Craig Brown, another of Beckett?s Portfolio Managers. ?We realised that a narrower investment universe would have made it difficult to construct a diversified portfolio and so seventy percent of our equity and bond holdings will adhere to these criteria, and the remaining holdings will be defined as Ethical by Financial Express.?
