Impax Ellevate Global Women's Leadership Fund Q1 Report Revealed

Impax Asset Management has published its Q1 2026 commentary for the Impax Ellevate Global Women's Leadership Fund. It provided a report on the fund's performance. According to it, the fund's portfolio lagged behind global equities, as represented by the MSCI World Index, in the first quarter of 2026.

The release further noted that overall, global equity markets closed the quarter in negative territory. This came notwithstanding the fact that the markets recorded a strong start to the year. Indeed, the quarter witnessed “two very different halves”, with the initial advance mainly based on robust corporate profits, a fall in bond yields and a resurgence of investor interest in real asset stocks. However, markets turned risk off in response to the escalation of tensions in the Middle East turning into full-scale conflict.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• In the first quarter of 2026, the Impax Ellevate Global Women's Leadership Fund underperformed the MSCI World Index.
• Concerns over AI disruptions affected technology and industrial stocks.
• However, the fund continued to focus on investing in companies with high levels of female representation.

The fund noted that a surge in energy prices after the Strait of Hormuz was closed and the subsequently higher oil and commodity prices had raised inflation expectations, thereby making investors less confident. Despite a global economic growth slowdown, the rise in bond yields continued.

Fund underperformance was mainly due to missing out on Energy and poor stock picking within Industrials. In the note, the fund highlights, for example, three industrial consulting companies, Stantec, Wolters Kluwer and Thomson Reuters, that went down as investors considered how AI might change their business models.

Further declines were seen in Information Technology shares such as Intuit, Accenture, Autodesk and Synopsys, which suffered on worries over AI-related disruptions.

On the other hand, the Health Care sector was a positive contributor in terms of selections made for the portfolio. Among the companies that reaped the benefits of the defensive nature of the sector and the fact that it was largely untouched by the tariff tensions are Johnson & Johnson, Gilead Sciences and GSK.

The report also mentioned that the fund had a good performance in Communication Services, due to its exposure to telecom companies like Orange, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom.

Seagate Technology Holdings together with Australia-based Woolworths Group were among the main contributors in the period. Seagate shares took off after their quarterly earnings surpassed the expectations on the back of sustained demand for AI data centre solutions. Woolworths also bounced back as a result of improved operational execution and a steady market share. Target moved higher following management changes and quite strong quarterly figures.

On the downside, Hermès International was one of the few companies that went down even with good financial results; investor sentiment got impacted by macroeconomic headwinds and concerns over China and tariffs. Lululemon Athletica was under pressure on many fronts such as declining sales, changing leadership, and worries over the tariffs.

According to the report, during the period of analysis, companies with high Gender Leadership scores did not do very well and that was a burden for the strategy. Being subject to workplace equity elements such as Talent Pipeline, Demographic Disclosure, Pay Equity and Commitment to Diversity was unfavorable to the relative performance. On the other hand, companies helmed by women CEOs and those with greater female board representation did relatively well.