Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – AuAg ESG Gold Mining, Eric Strand’s exchange-traded fund that invests in a select group of ESG-friendly gold mining companies, has secured a €24 million investment from a European pension fund. This allocation marks the largest single investment to date for AuAg Funds, the precious metals-focused fund management boutique led by Eric Strand.
Strand and his team designed the AuAg ESG Gold Mining UCITS ETF to provide both larger institutional investors and smaller retail investors with a leveraged play on the price of gold through investments in mining companies, all without employing financial leverage. As Strand previously noted to HedgeNordic, “Investing in gold miners is a leveraged bet on gold because their production costs remain relatively static while their revenue rises and falls with the price of gold.”
“This significantly increases the fund’s assets under management, which makes it investable for more large institutions.”
The ETF, trading under the ticker symbol ESGO, invests in the “best-in-class” gold mining companies from a sustainability perspective, with each company equal-weighted at four percent. The ETF currently trades on the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse Xetra, Borsa Italiana in Milano, Euronext in Paris, and Zürich. The €24 million allocation from the European pension fund represents AuAg’s largest single investment since launching in 2019.
“This significantly increases the fund’s assets under management, which makes it investable for more large institutions,” comments Strand. “We are now really looking forward to the second half of 2023, where we see a lot of opportunity to continue to grow the business,” he elaborates. AuAg’s product range, which also includes AuAg Silver Bullet, AuAg Precious Green and AuAg Essential Metals, oversees just under €170 million with the latest allocation to AuAg ESG Gold Mining UCITS ETF.
