If you want to be ethical, deep green is the only hue - Published:02/01/08
All times are London time look for News in the FTcom siteSearchSearch Quotes in the FTcom siteQuotes Your moneyBreadcrumb trail direction-finding:FT house > Your moneyServicesMost people would say investing in agriculture and timber is, by definition, ethical Surely, they would quarrel, products and companies that help to nourish the world, and build shelter have to be a high-quality thingThere’s a rash of novel, and not so novel, agricultural and soft commodity money on the market, vying for retail investment, to harness the upswing in soft product prices such as corn, wheat and soyaThese are on a bit of a roll Corn went from $257 a bushel in 2005, to around $383 now, having reached $430 earlier this yearMany believe there’s more to come James du Boulay, skull of sales and marketing at Eclectica Asset Management, says there are also cipher of the beginning of a commodities supercycle, and over the next five to 10 years investors could make a enormous amount of moneyAgricultural prices have been propelled upwards by a exhilarating cocktail of factors The global population is growing rapidly Consumers in the rapidly-developing parts of Asia want more protein-rich diets – it takes seven kilos of granule to produce a kilo of beef and five kilos for animal protein Add to all this the explosive demand for biofuels, and there is a strong quarrel for the sectorBut green investors should look carefully to make sure underlying investments meet their own personal ethical criteriaSome funds, such as Schroder option Solutions Agriculture and structured products from Dawnay Day Quantum and Close Investments, increase exposure to agriculture mostly through commodities futuresEclectica Agriculture invests in agriculture-related stocks DWS is launching a finance in the UK which will be similar And a solid called Braemar is bringing out a finance to buy farms near planned UK biofermentation plants (two of these are in the pipeline, but are not yet built)Sarasin is also setting up a finance Barclays Global Investors has launched the iShares S&P Global wood & Forestry, an exchange traded fund (ETF), which buys an directory of timber, forest manufactured goods, paper and packaging companies Forestry Investment Management runs tax-efficient UK funds (FIM) and Quadris ecological Investments cultivates sustainable teak in BrazilIn addition, a slew of asset houses, including Schroders and F&C, have climate alter funds that spend partly in agriculture-related companies The firms look for companies with products or services that help become accustomed to or mitigate the effects of climate change However, of the above, only Quadris has ethical asset objectivesAgricultural funds still meet some people’s moral criteria because crops are used to produce biofuelsBiofuels, however, are a controversial area The source of renewable energy has been seen as a more environmentally-friendly alternative But new studies have shown the compensation over fossil fuels, in terms of price and the environment, are, in many cases, not clear cutSimon Webber, co-manager of Schroder type of weather Change, says that whereas in Brazil sugar cane-based bioethanol has been shown to be helpful, the European biofuel production process does not save much energynot as good as still is palm oil-based biofuel, which has led to the deforestation of ground in Malaysia and Indonesia There is been a great contract of illegal logging, especially in Indonesia, to make method for palm oil plantations The process of deforestation increases the height of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, adding to the conservatory effect Some biofuel manufacturing processes make them worse for the earth than fossil fuelsWebber prefers companies making biogas, which uses pig and agricultural waste Biogas manufacture employs the whole hard skin plant and not just the kernel, so giving off twice as much energy And there is less competition with the hungry for foodSo ethical asset in the realm of farming is a complex matter and investors stick to different sets of principlesOrthodox, “dark green” investors are wary of agricultural funds Mike Head, a advisor at IFA Ethical Investment Group, says issues such as concentrated farming, genetic modification, the unsuitable use of pesticides, animal welfare, and concerns over the flora and fauna on the land, make the concept of an ethical agricultural investment an incredibly hard thing to undertakeThe best advice for the standard green investor would seem to be that if you do want to engage in the market, you’ll require to have pretty broad ethical criteriaCopyright The Financial era Limited 2007BlogsBrussels BlogCharles PretzlikClive CrookDear LucyEconomists’ ForumEnergy FilterJohn GapperGideon RachmanTech BlogThe in secret EconomistWestminster BlogWillem Buiter’s MavereconRegional pagesLatin American agendaChinaIndiaBrusselsInteractivePodcastsDebates & pollsAsk the expertMarkets Q&AJobs and classifiedsBusiness for saleContracts & tendersJobs 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Economists divided over forthcoming interest rate decisions - Published:13/12/07
Bankruptcy is "becoming more and more palatable" to those in serious money owing, according to Thomas CharlesThree-quarters of people in the UK do not understand how a one per cent dissimilarity in mortgage rates would have an effect on their loan, according to new researchOf the 52 analysts surveyed by Reuters, five predicted the store's monetary policy committee would choose to raise the interest rate again in FebruaryA sum of 46 analysts thought that interest rates would definitely be senior by the end of JunePhilip Shaw of Investec bank said it "leftovers unclear" what the MPC will do, citing a "big degree of residual doubt over the MPCs intentions"David Hillier of Barclays Capital spokesman David Hillier was equally uncertain, although he did put in that if any consumers had been concerned about the last rate rise, there was little sign of anything to "put their minds at rest"Howard Archer, leader UK and European economist at Global Insight, supposed that the country is presently experiencing "high inflationary waves", which may consequence in division among the MPC's.
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HSBC Bank Reveal Third Quarter Hits - Published:07/12/07
HSBC has exposed bad debts of $34 billion from the third quarter, though profits are up on a year before given the increased income The bank reported that the bad debts were $14 billion more than was predict by the first-half trends, as HSBC became the newest in a long list of banks to reveal it has been strike by the credit crisis HSBC also warned that the pending months could see the knock on effects of the praise crisis continueHSBS’s wounded are the result of mortgages on its books, rather than from exposure to mortgage-related products, as has been the case with several partition Street Banks Few, if any, banks have escaped without feeling some ill belongings of the praise crisis, with rivals such as Citigroup, UBS, Barclays, Northern Rock and the Royal Bank of Scotland now some of.
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Hsbc Bank Reveal Third Quarter Hits >>
