Impax Asian Environmental Markets (Ireland) will follow the same strategy the firm’s London-listed Asian markets investment trust, which raised £104.5 million ($161.9 million) at launch last October. The trust is valued at about £135 million today, having returned 18.9% since inception.

Chief executive Ian Simm did not specify how much money the open-ended fund has attracted so far, but said: “We have been pleased with the level of interest and believe that many more investors will be attracted to the Asian environmental investment opportunity over the coming years.

“We believe that the key drivers of the Asian environmental markets – market liberalisation, tightening environmental policy and falling costs of new technology – will continue to generate highly attractive investment opportunities.”

The fund invest will invest in companies involved in clean energy, water and waste management. Impax said it has identified a universe of more than 400 Asia-Pacific stocks with an aggregate market capitalisation of $800 billion.

The open-ended fund will be launched under Impax Funds (Ireland) plc, Impax’s UCITS III umbrella, which is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange.

Impax advises and manages assets worth £1.5 billion in 22 funds and mandates using environmental strategies, covering long-only listed equities, long-short listed equity and private equity.

Christopher Cundy