Ambienta, a sustainability-focused European asset manager, has launched its first absolute return fund, Ambienta X Alpha, which is believed to be the world’s first long/short fund entirely focused on environmental sustainability. Ambienta X Alpha will focus primarily on European and US markets taking both long and short alpha-generating positions. The Fund will employ a rigorous fundamental investment philosophy, taking long positions in companies with strong competitive advantages, which are poised to capitalise on sustainability megatrends. At the same time, the Fund will take short decisions based on factors including overhyped environmental themes and whether companies feature disrupted or unproven business models.
Since inception in 2007, Ambienta has been innovating in the application of environmental sustainability to asset management. The firm has a holistic approach to environmental businesses, which defines sustainability as a theme across sectors, beyond factors such as greenhouse gas emissions or energy transition which have characterised environmental investment for a decade. This definition allows Ambienta to embrace the entire economy, with an investible universe of thousands of companies for which sustainability is a competitive advantage or a significant threat.
Applying Ambienta’s systematic approach to sustainability to the public markets is a natural step for Ambienta, which will further reinforce its knowledge leadership. Ambienta’s dedicated Sustainability and Strategy team, led by Fabio Ranghino, has developed a proprietary, unique three-level sustainability scoring system designed specifically for public markets, as previously done for Private Equity with Ambienta’s proprietary methodology EIA (Environmental Impact Analysis). This scoring system will allow investors to monitor their exposure to the environmental theme.
Ambienta X Alpha is managed by a dedicated team led by Fabio Pecce, Ambienta X’s Chief Investment Officer, an experienced fund manager who brings with him 20 years of market knowledge and a proven track-record of successfully managing such strategies. Fabio is joined by Andrew Benson, Joel Bird, Francesco Cavallo and Rob Moore, a senior and talented team of investment, risk and operations professionals coming from top-tier organisations. The team is based in London.
The Ambienta X funds will target both institutional and private investors. With respect to institutions, Ambienta X Alpha has initially been offered only to investors who have historically backed Ambienta’s Private Equity funds. Ambienta has also launched a vehicle in partnership with Banca Generali, BG Alpha Green, to focus on Banca Generali’s private clients.
Nino Tronchetti Provera, Founder and Managing Partner of Ambienta, says: “Sustainability is reshaping the entire economy and it is driving the competitive positioning of both private and public companies in every industry and in every geography. Therefore sustainable investment is not only the right thing to do, but also represents a sound business decision. By combining our leading environmental sustainability expertise with public markets best practices, I am confident that Ambienta X will confirm Ambienta’s unique capability to deliver top decile financial performance based on solid and measurable environmental angles.”
Fabio Pecce, CIO of Ambienta X, says: “We are delighted to join Ambienta to establish its public markets division and launch X Alpha, a unique product leveraging on an unparalleled know-how in environmental investments. We share the firm’s innovative, entrepreneurial spirit and are excited to begin working on delivering value for our investors.”
