Lazard Asset Management has launched its Global Thematic Focus Fund, which is UCITS compliant.

The fund aims to achieve long-term capital growth by investing in a diversified portfolio of 35 to 50 firms around the world with a market capitalisation of more than $1 billion.

Managed by Nicholas Bratt, John King and Steve Wreford, the fund also aims to identify structural and secular changes that will transform the global economy. The firm said in a statement: “Profound transformations are taking place in the global economy, as digitisation becomes universal and environmental threats, societal anxieties, and regulation gain ever-greater prominence.”

The Bermuda-based firm has apparently established a process for identifying transformational themes, evaluating them in detail, and pinpointing associated opportunities for long-term investment.

The fund is available to investors in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. The aforementioned managers of the fund already manage the Lazard Global Thematic Equity strategy and have over 30 years average industry experience and a longstanding track record in thematic investing.

Given that 2019 was a strong year for equities, with the S&P 500 up over 26 percent, Lazard’s Global Thematic Equity strategy outperformed its benchmark the MSCI World by over 8 percent.

Mr Wreford said: “Identifying significant structural themes and undertaking bottom-up fundamental analysis of individual companies allows us to construct a well-diversified portfolio of holdings which are fundamentally attractive and undervalued.”

His colleague Mr King added: “.”“Our focus is on turning insights about long-term change into sustainable investment returns. We think about risk in a holistic way, and ESG is fully integrated into our process through our proprietary Sustainability Framework. We believe this will be a key differentiator in a fast-changing world.”  

Lazard managed $236.7 billion in assets as of 30 November 2019.