Environmentally themed investment funds have had a difficult time of late, but Impax Asset Management claims its water strategy has performed better than most.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is studying the feasibility of developing contracts to help protect investors and local companies against the effects of flooding.

Some 41% of companies responding to the CDP Water Disclosure Project do not consider water-related risks as having the potential to cause significant business impacts – a figure that is set to fall, as responding companies become more familiar with their exposures, according to those carrying out the research.

Companies in China that use water efficiently will be better positioned to profit in an economy increasingly at risk from water stress and new water regulations, according to analysis by HSBC.

Investor coalition Ceres has launched a tool to help investors manage water risks across their investment portfolios.

An investor who put money into the launch of SAM’s Sustainable Water Fund 10 years ago would have beaten its benchmark by 26.52% after fees, the Switzerland-based asset manager said today.

A water quality trading programme, meant to reduce the release of excess nutrients into the Ohio River Basin, last week received a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant which will allow the first pilot trades to go ahead.

Water risk may affect the investment performance of the Norwegian government pension fund, its manager said yesterday as it bemoaned the lack of water-related information from investee companies.

Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical and Coca-Cola are among a consortium of large US companies backing a World Resources Institute (WRI) initiative to help companies manage their water requirements and reduce the risk to their business of drought and flooding.

Investment in seawater desalination is forecast to average $2 billion a year to 2015, with almost half of this expenditure going on components and materials, according to US market analysts The McIlvaine Company.

The Nasdaq stock exchange is to launch four indexes to track the performance of companies involved in the water sector.

A vanishingly small proportion of large companies are adequately managing risks posed by water shortages, drought and pollution, according to research by EIRIS.

German development bank DEG has developed a tool to help investors assess the water risk in individual investments and at the portfolio level.

Businesses in 18 countries face “extreme” risks from water shortages, with water stress concentrated in the Middle East and North Africa, according to risk analysis firm Maplecroft.

Water risks present more of an immediate challenge to global corporations than carbon, but awareness about water issues among investors and companies is lower, experts said.

Impax Asset Management is focusing its water investment strategy on emerging markets, particularly Chinese and Indian companies, and is betting on companies on the ‘fringe’ of water technology who are making their first forays into the sector.

Investors are failing to factor water risk into their investment decisions because of a lack of information, according to a leading activist investor.

Bond investors are “blindly placing bets” on which US public utilities are best able to manage growing and imminent water risks, Ceres said in a report out today – which partly blames “weak scrutiny” by ratings agencies.

Water purification and anti-microbial technology company HaloSource hopes to fuel its global expansion by listing on the UK’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

China plans to meet an ambitious target to exploit its hydropower reserves in 2015 – five years ahead of earlier forecasts, according to local media reports.