We, The Trust Company (RE Services) Limited (ABN 45 003 278 831, AFSL 235150) the responsible entity of the Fund (“we” or “Perpetual” or the “Responsible Entity”), after careful consideration with the investment manager of the Fund, Perennial Value Management Limited (ABN 22 090 879 904, AFSL 247293) (“Investment Manager” or “Perennial”), have decided to terminate the Fund, effective 7 October 2026 (Termination Date).
You can read the full notice here.
Our investment approach
We believe that to have a genuinely positive impact and deliver sustainable performance, a company must focus on “what” it offers as well as “how” it operates. That’s why our investment approach involves deep assessment of a company’s impact along with its ESG practices. This is a key differentiator from traditional ESG investing, where ESG screens are often high level and applied without a deep understanding of the company. Companies must also get past our rigorous financial assessment and portfolio construction principles to be considered for investment.
Gender and Climate Frameworks
An additional overlay is applied to large companies that have the potential to create significant impact in gender equality (SDG5) through the size of their workforce or, in climate action (SDG13), as a large emitter of greenhouse gases.
For these companies the following frameworks are applied as part of the first stage of our investment process, our Impact Assessment.
Gender Lens Investing Framework (GLIF)
Our GLIF seeks to identify large companies demonstrating gender equality leadership, contributing to SDG5.5 ‘ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership’. The framework assesses factors such as women in leadership, gender pay gaps and targets. We believe gender-diverse companies will also achieve superior competitive long-term financial returns.
Find out more on our approach to Gender Lens Investing in our latest research paper.
Climate Action Transition Framework (CATF)
Our CATF seeks to identify high-emitting companies that exhibit leadership qualities on Climate Action SDG13.3 regarding improving ‘institutional capacity on climate change mitigation’.
The framework assesses a range of factors including companies establishing and providing evidence of the progress they are making against credible emissions reduction targets. For more information on our approach to climate action leadership, contact us for our latest research paper.
Investment Focus Areas
We have identified seven Investment Focus Areas that are aligned to our Australian and NZ equities universe. We believe companies that contribute to these Investment Focus Areas also benefit from either structural growth tailwinds or the defensive characteristics of essential services.
Circular economy
Natural capital
Sustainable communities
Decarbonisation
Equality and education
Economic participation
Health and wellbeing
Our approach to exclusions
We look to avoid investing in companies that have a material exposure to industries identified as detracting from the SDGs. Our fund therefore seeks to exclude companies which source 5% or more of their gross revenue from the manufacturing, production or selling of, or provision of financial services to the following industries*:
– Alcohol
– Armaments
– Gambling Operations
– Pornography
– Tobacco
– Fast food, soft drinks and confectionery
– Predatory lending
– Uranium and nuclear energy
– Thermal coal, tar sands, oil, conventional and unconventional gas**
*Assessed separately
** We recognise that high emitting companies that have a small exposure to excluded fossil fuels have the potential to have a net positive impact on SDG13 Climate Action if they demonstrate climate action leadership. Companies which emit greater than 1 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (or equivalent per annum) and satisfy Melior’s Climate Action Transition Framework based on factors such as credible net zero emissions targets, evidence of progress towards these targets and a transition plan may have up to 10% of their gross revenue derived from excluded fossil fuel industries.
The Melior Australian Impact Fund
The Melior Australian Impact Fund is a registered managed investment scheme. The Fund’s investment strategy is to seek to invest in Australian and New Zealand companies delivering competitive market returns and positive social and/or environmental impacts that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Performance
*Source: Fund Inception: 1 July 2019. The Fund has a long-term outperformance horizon of seven years. Total returns shown for the Melior Australian Impact Fund have been calculated using exit prices after taking into account all ongoing fees and assuming reinvestment of distributions. No allowance has been made for taxation. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.