Legal & General Investment Management has launched a fund for UK investors, offering exposure to eight long-term investment themes through exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The Legal & General Global Thematic fund will invest in existing L&G ‘building-block’ ETFs that focus on areas such as technology, energy & resources, and changing demographics. It will be managed by Dave Barron, head of index equity and smart beta at LGIM and is benchmarked against the MSCI World Total Return Net index.
The specific themes that the fund offers exposure to are artificial intelligence, robotics & automation, cyber security, battery value-chain, clean water, ecommerce logistics, healthcare breakthrough and pharma breakthrough.
Legal & General Global Thematic fund’s underlying themes
Source: LGIM
James Crossley, LGIM’s head of UK retail sales, said: “Thematic investing has risen in popularity in recent years, thanks to its ability to capitalise on the structural and foundational changes shaping our society.
“However, we often hear from clients about the challenges of accessing ETFs and having to choose between specific investment themes, and in designing the Global Thematic fund, we wanted to make that decision easier. By providing a single point of entry to a diversified universe of companies, the fund offers investors access to a broad range of growth opportunities.
“We believe it to be an attractive proposition for advisers seeking differentiated investment ideas for clients and a unique and cost-effective way to invest in the themes that are shaping the future of our environment, work and society.”
Legal & General Global Thematic will have an underlying investment universe of just over 400 stocks and will use quantitative allocation model to provide exposure to growth themes while maximising diversification.
To improve the portfolio’s volatility and return profile, this model will adjust the weighting of each theme as they evolve over time to ensure that they contribute around the same level of risk to the fund.