The latest news in investment trends and funds across Europe and the UK.

WisdomTree
VOLT gives investors access to companies involved across the battery supply chain, WisdomTree announced of its aptly named ETF offering launched yesterday. The WisdomTree Battery Solutions UCITS ETF (aka VOLT), listed on the London Stock Exchange, will track the price and yield performance of the WisdomTree Battery Solutions Index, carrying a cost ratio of 0.40 per cent before fees.

WisdomTree has partnered with energy research consultancy Wood Mackenzie to develop the index aimed at capturing this market growth. For index inclusion, a security must be involved in one or more aspects of the energy storage value chain, including the raw materials, manufacturing, emerging technologies and other enablers, the firm said.

This latest fund adds to WisdomTree’s thematics range, including its Artificial Intelligence UCITS ETF (WTAI) and Cloud Computing UCITS ETF (WCLD). The group sees energy storage as “an emerging megatrend,” forecasting that battery powered cars will grow ten-fold by 2040, with close to half of all passenger car sales being electric by then.

“Power and road transport, which together contributed around two-thirds of carbon emissions in 2017, are a clear area of focus for the energy transition. Batteries could play a key role in reducing the climate problem alongside the decarbonisation policies that have already been rolled out,” Christopher Gannatti, head of research for Europe at WisdomTree, said.

Batteries and more broadly energy storage solutions, are already driving mobile computing, electric vehicles and other highly watched developments that have institutional investors pouring into the sector.

Director at Wood Mackenzie, David Linden, said this decade will "be key" for batteries. "As they become cheaper and their deployment accelerates, they will advance the energy transition. Our integrated understanding of the constantly evolving battery value chain allows us to identify the sectors best positioned to take advantage of this opportunity."

Man GLG
Man GLG, the discretionary investment arm of UK-listed Man Group, has rolled out Man GLG US Absolute Alpha strategy, a hedge fund mainly concentrating on US equities. It is co-managed by Mike Corcell and Alex Robarts, who had previously worked together at RWC, the firm which they left last year.

The fund is a long/short US equity approach that focuses on three key areas when assessing stocks: investment cycles, changing themes and secular trends. Portfolio managers target their research on companies which are very open about their business models. A representative portfolio for the strategy would typically holds 60-70 stocks, Man GLG said in a statement.

Corcell and Robarts joined Man GLG in 2019 from RWC Partners, where they managed a US long/short UCITS fund for 10 years. Corcell has more than 20 years’ experience in US equity long/short investing from his time at RWC, SAC Capital Advisors and Columbia Threadneedle Investments. Roberts worked alongside Corcell at RWC and Columbia Threadneedle. He brings 20 years of experience to the portfolio, having also previously worked with Insight and Rothschild Asset Management.

As at 31 December 2019, Man GLG had $31.6 billion in assets under management.