Constructing a thematic investment portfolio is becoming a challenge as the number of companies grows and as they diversify their activities. Portfolio managers are also faced with more and more competition and need to remain on the edge and provide their customers with more tailored products. Our client was a renowned bank that wanted to approach the thematic investment problem with a highly granular approach: as industries become more complex, so too should the way we assign companies to fields of activity.

Companies tend to be active in several sectors and can hardly be classified into a single category. Consequently, a company might be exposed to different topics with different weights depending on how much of their activity is focused on that topic. Clients want a more granular and intuitive approach to thematic investing. Investing in “Pharma” is no longer granular enough, as clients want to invest in themes such as “Immunology” or “Oncology”.