Liontrust's new £150m sustainable investment trust will close its offer for sale on June 29, with admission of shares taking place on July 5.
The trust - simply called Liontrust ESG - will invest in 25 to 35 companies around the world that it deems sustainable, predominantly in developed markets.
Richard Laing, who is currently a board member of Tritax Big Box Reit, JP Morgan’s emerging market investment trust and 3i Infrastructure, will chair the board of the strategy.
Clare Brook will join the board as non-executive director. She has previously launched Aviva's sustainable investment division in 2001.
In 2008 she co-founded WHEB Asset Management, a positive impact investment firm.
Kunle Olafare has also been confirmed as a non-executive director. He is chief executive and client director of SK Financial, an independent financial planning firm and has previously spent nine years as head of advice at Kleinwort Benson.
Finally, Sarah Ing will join the board and chair the audit and risk committee. She is a chartered accountant and is currently a non-executive director at CMC Markets and XPS Pensions Group.
The trust’s portfolio will be managed by Peter Michaelis, Simon Clements and Chris Foster, currently part of Liontrust’s sustainable investment team.
Liontrust has said the closed-ended nature of the new ESG offering would allow the investment managers to invest in smaller cap stocks, as there would be less concern over short-term volatility.
It will be managed using Liontrust’s ‘sustainable future’ investment process, which the firm says identifies companies “helping to create a cleaner, safer and healthier world”.
Current trends in this sector that the trust will focus on include better resource efficiency, greater safety and resilience and improved health.
sally.hickey@ft.com
