Ninety One's £2bn Global Environment fund increases bets on Chinese climate leaders

Reduction of utility holdings

The £2bn Ninety One Global Environment fund put more money to work in Chinese companies throughout 2022 despite a volatile year for the region, while significantly reducing its utility holdings in the wake of higher costs of capital.

In the first two quarters of last year, as some market strategists, fund managers and analysts deemed China uninvestable, co-managers Graeme Baker and Deirdre Cooper saw the sell-off as an opportunity to add to the fund's Chinese holdings.  "We saw an indiscriminate sell-off in our Chinese names, but still saw strong fundamentals," said Baker. "The volatility in itself gave us an opportunity to top up in Q2. That helped to drive some positive performance as we moved into Q3, when we saw a big rebound." The portfolio weighting in China decreased from 21% to 14% during the sell-off, whi...