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Institutions & Sub-Advisory?

An investment approach Pictet Asset Management pioneered in the 1990s, thematic equity strategies serve as an alternative to traditional regional and global stock portfolios.
Overview

The primary purpose of a thematic equity strategy is to invest in stocks whose returns are influenced by structural forces of change that evolve independently of the economic cycle. In other words, the approach seeks to transform long-term technological, environmental and societal megatrends into investment opportunities.

At Pictet AM, we achieve this by following a disciplined investment process.

With the help of outside experts from industry and academia, such as the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, we carry out research to identify the most dynamic areas of the global economy - those where megatrends are particularly influential. We have identified 14 such industries in the past 25 years, including robotics, clean energy and water - each of which represented in our range of thematic strategies.

Our view is that the listed companies operating within the globe's fastest-evolving industry sectors offer among the best prospects for capital growth.

There a number of features of the thematic investment universe that we believe make it a viable alternative to mainstream global equity strategies.

thematic and megatrends

The first is that the universe is large – there are almost as many thematic stocks as there are companies represented in mainstream equity indices. This means it is just as easy to diversify an equity portfolio with a thematic approach as it is with a traditional that is benchmarked against a standard world equity index.

The second, and perhaps a more important characteristic, is that thematic companies are, at the same time, very focused in their business activities, with ‘pure plays’ making up a significant part of the investible market. Pure plays are always favoured over more diversified companies.

A third feature of thematic equity investments is that - in most cases - they are not accessible via mainstream stock indices.

In other words, the make-up of a thematic equity portfolio bears little resemblance to standard global stock indices. This also reflects the fact that our investment teams have complete freedom in the selection of their stocks, eliminating ‘forced’ investment decisions that are made simply to alter a portfolio's tracking error. For these reasons, thematic equities are a viable alternative to investing in stocks by region or via mainstream global equity portfolios. 

Selected insights

Click below to read more about our Thematic Equities expertise
Our team
Unlike a typical global equity manager, our thematic teams are not generalists but specialist experts in understanding companies operating in growth pockets of the global economy underpinned by megatrends. By building portfolios focused exclusively on these stocks we believe they can deliver long-term growth profiles greater than the overall market. 

Accessing external expertise

Each of our thematic strategies is managed by a team of dedicated specialist investment managers. In order to make sure our ideas are as robust as possible, they have a dedicated advisory board of eminent scientists, business leaders and academics.

They test our views against those of experts in their fields, providing us with deeper understanding of the structural trends and ensuring our strategies capitalise on new opportunities.

When it comes to investing in global equities, it pays to become a specialist.

Hans Peter Portner
Hans Peter Portner Head of Thematic Equities

We also have long-standing relationships with the Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies, whose megatrend framework we follow, as well the Stockholm Resilience Centre, whose Planetary Boundaries framework underpins our Global Environmental Opportunities strategy.

Contact us

For more information about our thematic equity expertise please contact your Pictet Asset Management representative or a member of the team via the contact details listed below:
United States
712 Fifth Avenue 25th Floor New York, NY 10019 Representative registered with Foreside Fund Services, LLC which is not affiliated with Pictet AM or its affiliates
Telephone
+1 212 237 3190
Funds

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