Waratah Capital Advisors has launched the firm’s second liquid alternative mutual fund, the Waratah Alternative ESG (AESG) Fund. The new offering will operate pari-passu with the OM fund, providing high net worth (HNW) retail investors and their advisors with direct access to a diversified portfolio composed of long and short equity positions where Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) factors are integrated, and emphasised into the investment thesis.
Liquid alternatives provide portfolio construction tools which offer the potential for added diversification and risk-adjusted returns. The Waratah Alternative ESG Fund integrates ESG factors and considerations into fundamental investment analysis to reduce inadvertent and direct ESG related risks as well as to identify new ESG related investment opportunities such as water technology, battery materials, renewable energy and plastics innovation.
Jason Landau, Portfolio Manager, Waratah AESG Fund, says: “After more than two years of research and development we launched one of North America’s first equity long short ESG strategies, which integrates’ our bottom up company stock specific analysis and our existing factor management with ESG analysis and a proprietary Waratah ESG scoring methodology. Unique to our strategy is that we can go both long and short: rewarding companies with good ESG practices and scores while shorting those with negative attributes.”
Blair Levinsky, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Waratah, says: “Year-to-date the fund has been extremely resilient protecting capital and posting positive returns in line with our expectations. A long short approach to ESG investing allows us to continue with the portfolio construction and approach to risk control which we have become known for, while at the same time allows us to avoid excessive concentration often associated with ESG funds due to traditional divestment of offending sectors.”
