Speaking at an investor event on Monday, chief executive Ian Simm said that “Asia is probably the most exciting area for environmental markets growth,” as governments in the region increasingly recognise the growth potential offered by environmental technology, and appreciate the need to deal with the environmental impacts of urbanisation and industrialisation. 

The company is planning to add a full-time analyst in Hong Kong as part of expected growth to 50 staff globally up from 45 at present, he said. Further hires are expected in operations and marketing, Simm told Environmental Finance. 

Launched in London in 1994, Impax began managing assets in 1999 and, after several years of modest assets growth, AUM began to grow dramatically after 2007. At the end of April, it boasted £1.91 billion – up from £1.26 billion last September, and from a low of £889 million in the midst of the financial crisis last March. 

The growth is a combination of new mandates and fund launches, and portfolio appreciation, Simm said. 

In October, the company closed a £104.5 million Asian environmental technology listed equity fund, and in late March raised €141 million ($174 million) into Impax New Energy Investors II, its second renewable energy project finance fund. Simm added that the company expects to attract additional capital into that fund. It also won a €150 million mandate from a major European institution into its flagship Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) equity strategy. 

At the presentation, Simm said US institutional investors are becoming more interested in environmental investment opportunities. In the past, there has been little pull from investment consultants and, under the Bush administration, little push in terms of environmental policy. However, both of these factors have changed, “and we expect that this will lead to allocations over the next couple of years”, Simm said. 

He added that, in terms of investment themes, energy efficiency, power generation and the power grid, water and Asia are four to watch. However, he said Impax has no plans to launch new strategies. 

“We’re better served with a general strategy,” as this allows the investment managers to rebalance the portfolio between clean energy, water and waste “as their fortunes wax and wane”. This has allowed the fund to outperform the MSCI World index but with the same level of volatility, he said. Over the five years to end May, the IEM returned 94.1%, compared to 48.1% for the MSCI World Global Small Cap. 

“At the moment, there’s plenty of scope for additional growth – our investors prefer that we’re managing money rather than originating new assets,” he added. 

Mark Nicholls