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Rest hunts impact opportunities in listed equities
Rest has bucked the private markets for its latest impact investment, tipping $150 million into an international listed equities mandate with investment manager Ninety One instead. The mandate is for its Global Environment Equity Strategy, which is aimed at contributing to a lower-carbon global economy by focusing on businesses across renewable energy, resource efficiency and electrification.
“While impact investments are more commonly found in private markets, the opportunities in public markets are rapidly evolving, with new strategies and opportunities constantly emerging,” said Rest head of listed assets Kiran Singh.
“We believe listed equities can play an important role in meeting our objective of a one per cent allocation to impact investments across the fund’s total portfolio by 2026, and can complement our existing private market impact investments.”
The mandate is the latest in a series of investments across Rest’s impact portfolio, including into the unlisted infrastructure Palisade Impact Fund, specialist private equity firm ARCHIMED, and the agriculture-focused Cibus II Fund.
“Through these investments, we aim to help our members grow their retirement savings with strong, long-term investment returns and also generate measurable positive environmental impacts,” Singh said. “The transition to a lower-carbon economy is presenting us with new investment opportunities to accelerate returns for our members’ retirements. We believe it’s very important that our members have exposure to companies with growth leveraged to decarbonisation solutions.
Rest has established a “one per cent” aspiration for impact investing by 2026, according to deputy CIO Simon Esposito, which would translate to a billion dollars as the fund grows to FUM of $100 billion. The fund’s internal definition of “impact investments” is investments “made in members’ best financial interests, to provide a financial return and a social and or environmental return”.
“Sustainability is becoming more important to forward-thinking Australian institutional investors, such as Rest, who are pursuing strong returns in investments that are also expected to positively contribute to measurable environmental outcomes to make the world a better place,” said Justin Cowper, head of institutional business for Ninety One in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
“We look forward to partnering more with Rest as they continue to evolve their market-leading thinking on what is an essential topic for all investors.”
