The AXA World Funds Framlington Robotech Fund has been launched by AXA IM.
Domiciled in Luxembourg, the SICAV follows an active, unconstrained, multi-cap, robotics strategy. The managers aim to invest in global growth companies spanning robotics and automation applications across various areas including the industrial, technology, manufacturing, healthcare and transportation sectors.
Managers are Tom Riley and Jeremy Gleeson at AXA IM Framlington Equities.
Lead fund manager Riley said: “We are at the early stages of the robotics revolution, the robotics market is expected to grow by 10% a year until 2025. While this is an emerging multi-decade theme, it is already an investible area from which we aim to select 40 to 60 fast growth companies to build a global portfolio diversified across market cap and sectors. Robotics will continue to have a significant impact on society for years to come and an increasing number of new listed small and mid-cap companies will become investment opportunities over time.”
Global Head of Framlington Equities at AXA IM Mark Beveridge said: “AXA IM have a long history and track record in thematic equity investing (e.g. technology, healthcare, biotech, listed property etc.). We have been early adopters of the robotics trend and have been investing in areas such as industrial automation, autonomous vehicles and robot assisted surgery for a number of years in other strategies. We fundamentally believe you need an active manager to access new growth areas such as robotics – there is no broadly used standard robotics benchmark that you can try to replicate. We have great momentum in an uncrowded space; demand for our robotics strategy has been incredible from clients in Japan and we are excited that we can now offer this strategy more widely.”
