Charity Investment Firm CCLA to Offer ESG-Focused Funds to Retail Investors

CCLA, the UK’s largest charity investment manager which was founded in 1958 and manages 14 billion pounds in assets, currently manages investments for charities, religious organisations and the public sector and is owned by its clients.

As demand for ESG investing continues to grow strongly across the market, and after requests from existing clients to invest their personal money in its funds, CCLA said it planned to market them more widely.

“Our long heritage of serving the not-for-profit sector underpins our responsible and sustainable investment approach which is in line with our clients’ community-oriented values,” said CCLA Chief Executive Peter Hugh Smith in a statement.

“Today this is known as ‘ESG investing’. At CCLA, we have always believed that truly healthy and sustainable investment markets require healthy communities and our investment approach has embodied such principles since inception.”

To help oversee the expansion, CCLA also said it was hiring former JPMorgan banker Jasper Berens as head of client relationships and distribution.

“There are not many managers that have achieved such consistent outperformance in their equity and multi-asset funds* and that have been focused 100% on responsible investment for as long and as authentically as CCLA,” Berens said.

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(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Bernadette Baum)