Affinity Private Wealth (Affinity), a Jersey-based independent wealth management business and a winner of Jersey Finance’s Leadership in Sustainable Finance Awards 2022, has launched its first sustainable growth fund.
The fund is structured as a sub-fund of the GemCap Investment Funds (Ireland) plc UCITS Umbrella structure, a $4bn platform domiciled in Ireland. This fund solution is categorised as Article 8 under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) – a category which applies to funds which promote, among other characteristics, environmental or social characteristics, or a combination of those characteristics, provided that the companies in which the investments are made follow good governance practices.
APW Investors Limited (APWIL), Affinity’s investment business which is licensed by the Jersey Financial Services Commission, is the appointed Investment Manager of the sub-fund. This means that the Affinity Sustainable Growth Fund is managed locally in Jersey, but invested globally.
This launch builds on the expertise developed as part of Affinity’s Sustainable Strategy, a discretionary managed portfolio designed to generate growth, with impact. Asset allocation and investment selection for that strategy is undertaken entirely by Affinity’s Jersey-based team and includes underlying funds investing globally and run by managers located in London, Edinburgh, Switzerland, Singapore and Sydney, to name a few. The fund now aims to broaden access to that strategy to a range of retail and institutional investors.
Affinity have partnered with Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, a global conservation organisation based in Jersey, to share fee revenue from all their sustainable strategies.
Law firm Collas Crill, through its Jersey-based funds team, advised GemCap Investment Funds (Ireland) plc in relation to the launch of the fund.