R&M's Sym bets on Europe's environmental credentials to boost unloved market

Is renewable energy the key to renewed fortunes?

The environment is set to be the theme to dominate the next business cycle, according to River & Mercantile's James Sym, who believes Europe's strength across the renewable energy value chain will enable the continent to shrug off its unloved status among investors amid the economy recovery.

European stocks have lagged global peers over the past decade, with the MSCI Europe index returning 81.6% over ten years to 20 October compared to a 195.3% return for the MSCI World, according to FE fundinfo. However, manager of the ES R&M European fund, which launched at the end of September, Sym told Investment Week he expects a divergence through the economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis from the key themes of the previous cycle, "which was all about the very large US tech stocks". River & Mercantile launches first fund for newly-hired James Sym Sym said: "The environmen...