Impact investing: separating traders from investors

The investment world over the past several decades has increasingly suffered from a myopic investment strategy. Some research suggests that investment funds in the UK and US now have an average holding pattern of around eighteen months. George Latham, Managing Partner, at WHEB Asset Management, investment manager of the Pengana WHEB Sustainable Impact Fund, argues against this short-term thinking which is in stark contrast to a 7-year holding period more typical for his fund.

He says that funds which are invested with a genuinely long-term horizon, such as those deployed to an impact investing strategy, will benefit from higher-quality companies with significant opportunities for growth as the world transitions to a more sustainable and low carbon economy. George also discusses the latest WHEB Impact Report, and provides an example of the ability to measure the carbon emissions associated with an investment portfolio, and the importance of doing so in the context of the global goal of limiting global warming to an increase of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.