Impax Asset Management Group

The business was founded in 1998 investing in solutions to resource scarcity (in energy efficiency, alternative energy, water, waste, food and agriculture and related sectors) with support from the International Finance Corporation.[3]

In November 2013, the company's chief executive, Ian Simm, was called as an expert witness to give evidence to the House of Commons on some of the difficulties with the availability of Green Finance in the UK.[4]

In their review of the largest fund managers in the UK in 2014, KPMG noted that the company was one of the few not to reveal the remuneration of its chief executive officer.[5] The company was criticised again, this time by the Investment Association, over executive pay in December 2018.[6]

On 18 September 2017, Impax Asset Management Group plc announced that it had entered into agreements to acquire 100% of Pax World Management LLC. The acquisition was completed on 18 January 2018.[7]

In December 2018, the company announced that it would be opening an operation in Dublin to serve clients after Brexit (the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union).[8] After 23.7% of shareholders voted against the re-appointment of EY as the company's auditor in May 2018,[9] the company was criticised by the Investment Association, over an apparent lack of independence of EY as its auditor, in December 2018.[6]

In December 2019, Alex Newman in Investors Chronicle noted that in the context of "unprecedented concern globally about environmental issues", it was "hard to think of a UK-listed financial services group better placed to capitalise on this momentous, even exponential, shift."[10] In 2020, the Financial Times journalist and author, Alice Ross,[11] observed that, while many fund managers claim to be mindful of environmental issues, Impax Asset Management Group was one of just three fund managers identified that has "consistently focussed on the environment".[2] Writers in the Investors Chronicle also said that it was "hard to argue otherwise" but to agree that interest in the company was evidence of a "transition to a more sustainable economy".[12] The company's track record of leadership in this area was recognised with the selection by Financial News of the company's chief executive as the "Male Industry Leader of the Year" in 2020.[13]

The company manages environmentally focused equity investments such as renewable energy, water and waste management[14] through various funds including Impax Environmental Markets, which is focused on environmental companies in North America, Europe and Asia was launched in 2002.[15] Impax New Energy Investors is a €125 million fund which closed in August 2006[16] and Impax New Energy Investors II is a €330 million fund which closed in August 2011.[17] It also manages listed equity funds on behalf of third parties including BNP Paribas.[18]

The company had assets under management of £20.2 billion at 30 September 2020.[1] However, it remains exposed to the risks that have adversely affected developers in the solar and wind industries.[19] According to the New York Times research by Impax Asset Management Group has found that only one third of investors are sufficiently concerned about climate change to invest in clean energy implying that those investors are clearly failing to realise the risks of not doing so.[20] The company has therefore been lobbying the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to force companies to disclose the location of their assets so their exposure to environmental risks can be properly evaluated.[21]

The company has undertaken some pioneering work in the area of sustainability:[3][22] unusual investments supported by the company have included Royal DSM, a Dutch chemical company which had invented a food additive which reduces the methane released by cows burping.[23]

One of the largest institutional shareholders in the company, BNP Paribas, who had held a 28% stake in the business,[24] sold more than 40% of its shareholding in November 2020.[25]