Aros Capital Partners, an Anglo Danish investment manager, is launching a UK-managed global altruistic opportunities fund in the second quarter of 2010.
The fund, called Aros Altru, aims to challenge the notion that social benefits are a trade off with commercial returns by offering equity-like returns to its investors.
It will be a closed-end private equity vehicle and the businesses in which it invests will not just be social enterprises but those that have the potential to make a sustained social impact in their communities.
It will target those companies that fall under the radar due to either size or product stage. Some of these companies are unable to finance their own growth yet are too small to attract capital from traditional sources.
In developed countries Altru’s investment focus will be on technology, community, renewable energy, transportation, housing, culture and sports. In developing countries the focus will be on building, infrastructure, health, water, education, housing and telecommunications.
The target size of the fund will be GBP10m. The minimum investment will be GBP 70,000.
Nicolai Borcher Hansen (pictured), chief investment officer of Aros Capital Partners, says: “With the collapse of financial markets, the idea that society benefits from pure profit is starting to lose its grip. Tentatively, another era is taking shape: where the social impact of our business and investments is taken into account and where there are longer horizons for returns on capital.
“Aros Altru has been designed and structured to convince investors that doing good and making commercial returns need not be mutually exclusive. We hope that by delivering strong financial returns, we will attract new investors to this area and thus start a virtuous circle where all will benefit.”
