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HS Group forms strategic partnership with sustainability asset manager, Mercator Partners

18 Oct 2022 , 03:28 PM

Business Wire India

HS Group, one of the largest long term capital providers in alternative investments, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with sustainability focused asset manager, Mercator Partners.

Established in 2018, Mercator is an alternative asset manager dedicated to decarbonization opportunities across basic industries. The firm combines an experienced and proven portfolio construction team with a differentiated investment process built around primary research. Co-founder and CIO Scott Hobart commented “We are thrilled to partner with HS Group, a team that has demonstrated its ability in helping to scale leading alternate investment managers along with a strong appreciation for the multi decade structural investment opportunity that lies along the road to decarbonize industry.”

Mercator launched the Mercator Convergence Fund, a low net global long/short equity mandate in April 2019. The strategy draws heavily on the EU Taxonomy framework to inform positioning. Mercator aligns closely with academia and has harnessed the resources of national laboratories who have undertaken pioneering work in support of the move to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Martin Fransson, co-founder, directs primary research and earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry with a focus on material science and catalysis at Princeton. The third co-founder, Matthew Cross oversees stock specific research. In 2021, Mercator was the first asset management platform to partner with Princeton’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment under their E-ffiliates program. Chris Grieg, Senior Research Scientist at the Andlinger Center, commented that “academia sees value in strengthening ties with asset management and we are pleased to note Mercator’s progress as it continues to scale.”

Mercator also supports founders seeking to commercialize innovative intellectual property that offers a pathway to decarbonization with recent seed investments spanning business models delivering scalable and permanent carbon dioxide removal and new approaches to reactor design in the field of fusion energy.

Commenting on HS Group’s decision to add Mercator to its growing circle of alternate manager partnerships, CIO Michael Garrow noted that “in Mercator we recognized a team that was early in identifying the investment opportunity around the decarbonization of industry as the urgency to address climate change intensifies.” Garrow continued: “We believe the investment process they have built around primary research, capitalizing on non-traditional information sources, puts the firm in a strong position to exploit what may well prove to be the largest reallocation of capital in history.”