The Premier Miton Balanced Multi Asset fund will be changed to the Diversified Sustainable Growth fund as of 1 March as the firm continues its move towards ethical investing.
Its name will be changed to adjust to the fund’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus, investing mainly in assets with themes of health and wellbeing, financial inclusion and energy transition.
Neil Birrell, manager of the fund, said: “The fund’s portfolio will not change as a result of this and so there will be no costs involved.
“The investment strategy of the fund has always been to identify long-term structural changes or themes that are taking place in economies or society and to build a directly invested multi asset portfolio around those.”
As the fund’s asset allocation has gradually shifted to a more ESG focus, Birrell reassured investors that the change to the fund’s name was mainly “to make it clear to current and potential investors that this is the approach”.
The company has also announced the renaming of four other funds to better reflect their investment processes.
Alongside, Premier Miton Balanced Multi Asset, Premier Miton Responsible UK Equity has been renamed Premier Miton Ethical while Premier Miton Global Alpha Growth has become Premier Miton Global Sustainable Growth.
Premier Miton Global Sustainable Optimum Income is the new name for the Premier Global Optimum Income fund, while Premier Miton Global Infrastructure is now Premier Miton Global Renewables Trust.
Premier Miton said that assets in the fund will be selected for their sustainable growth qualities and will typically be based in sub-sectors that will be less effected by changing economic conditions.
The £6.2m fund invests across various asset classes, with equities making the majority at 63.5% of total holdings, especially in North American markets.
After swaying above and below the FTSE 100 benchmark index for much of the past year, the fund landed 3.3% below the benchmark.
However, in the long term it has outperformed the benchmark by 10.4% since its launch in early 2018.
Fund vs benchmark and sector
Source: FE Analytics
Premier Miton runs six other Diversified funds with similar ESG investment criteria. The longest running of this range, the Diversified Growth fund has gone up 129.4% since its 2013 launch, outperforming the FTSE 100 by 38.7 percentage points. It was consistently below the benchmark over 2021 but broke even by the year’s close.
Although they made positive returns, both the Diversified Income and Diversified Balanced Growth funds underperformed the FTSE 100 in the past year. Premier Miton also recently launched a new ESG fund, the European Sustainable Leaders portfolio.