AGF U.S. Energy Transition and Adaptation Strategy
Approach
Thematic, Fundamental, Bottom up
Cap
All-Cap, Agnostic
Benchmark
Solactive U.S. Energy Transition and Adaptation Opportunities Index
Inception Date
February 2023
Key Reasons to Invest
1
Focused on full cycle, long-term secular opportunities with a targeted approach to identify companies that we expect to be beneficiaries of the multi-decade energy transition and adaptation evolution.
2
Invests in solution providers including power infrastructure, carbon capture, energy storage, hydrogen, materials, sustainable fuels, and flood or fire mitigation companies* that we believe will grow and successfully contribute to the energy transition and infrastructure adaptation.
3
Our differentiated process seeks well positioned companies that offer solutions to help with the transition of energy systems and improve the resilience of infrastructure from an adaptation perspective.
Overview
Strategy
The strategy's objective is to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in equity securities of companies providing solutions related to reducing the environmental footprint of the current energy system and adaptation to climate change.
Philosophy
We believe the North American energy transition is a defining economic catalyst for the coming decades. As electrification accelerates across multiple facets of the economy, from industry to transportation to digital infrastructure, the electric grid must evolve to deliver the reliability, resilience, and efficiency required to meet this structural demand. This shift has triggered a multi-decade capital investment cycle across generation, transmission, storage, and demand-side systems, offering long-term growth potential. At the same time, rising frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is straining the backbone of critical infrastructure, elevating the need for resilience, restoration, and asset protection as a critical and underserved investment opportunity.
Process
Our investment process combines top-down analysis with fundamental stock selection using a proven approach to thematic investing. We map companies with significant opportunities to the key themes driving North America’s energy transition and adaptation. This will include both incumbent energy solutions and pureplay disruptors.
The Strategy aims to provide investors with exposure to the multi-decade energy transition and adaptation currently underway. The manager will assess fundamentals, business maturity, policy, macro drivers and market perception to identify companies we believe have attractive growth prospects. In addition, assessing technological advancements, the competitive landscape and cost decline trajectory are also critical inputs in stock selection. The result is a differentiated portfolio of 10 to 30 holdings from all capitalization ranges.
In conjunction with Solactive, AGF Investments has helped to create the Solactive Energy Transition and Adaptation Opportunities Index to track the performance of the transition and adaptation landscape. Solactive’s Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool called ARTIS, was used to help identify the universe that captures different opportunities within energy transition and adaptation and goes beyond the typical rules-based index construction approach.
Investment Process
- Identify potentially attractive investment opportunities defined by on-going energy transition and adaptation in North America.
- These opportunities are underpinned by changes in energy technology solutions, regulations, policies, and the competitive landscape.
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1. Create Investment Universe
- Identify publicly-traded companies whose business are the main drivers and financial beneficiaries of North America's energy transition and adaptation.
- This will include both pureplay disruptors and incumbent energy solutions companies.
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2. Security Selection
- Employ thematic and fundamental analysis to identify companies we believe are best positioned to benefit within each energy transition and adaptation theme.
- Evaluate market perception relative to potential to identify opportunities.
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3. Portfolio Construction and Ongoing Stewardship
- Initiate positions scaled to solution strength, conviction levels and risk attributes.
- Emphasis is on the long-term potential of capital deployment. Near term market dynamics are a secondary consideration but useful for weighting.
- Corporate transition efforts will be the focus of ongoing engagement.
- 10 – 30 investments.
Investment Team
Martin Grosskopf manages AGF Investments’ sustainable investing strategies and provides input on sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues across the firm’s investment teams. He is a thought leader and a frequent public speaker on ESG and Green Finance issues. He served as Vice-Chair of the CSA Group technical committee on Green and Transition Finance and is a past member of the Responsible Investment Association (RIA)’s Board of Directors.
Martin has more than 30 years of experience in financial and environmental analysis. He previously served as Director, Sustainability Research and Portfolio Manager with Acuity Investment Management Inc., which was acquired by AGF Management Limited in 2011. Before joining the financial industry, Martin worked in a diverse range of industries in the areas of environmental management, assessment and mitigation. He was a project manager with CSA International from 1997 to 2000 and, prior to that, served as an environmental scientist with Acres International Limited.
In 2023 Martin was a recipient of the Canada Clean16 Award for his work furthering sustainability in the financial sector. Martin obtained a B.A. from the University of Toronto and an MES from York University, and earned an MBA from the Schulich School of Business.
Vishal Bané serves as a Portfolio Manager for the AGF Global Sustainable Equity Strategy, leveraging his extensive Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) analysis experience to evaluate the strategy’s ESG risks and opportunities. In May 2025, he expanded his responsibilities becoming a portfolio manager for AGF U.S. Small-Mid Cap Strategy.
Vishal joined AGF in 2017 as an Analyst. Prior to that, he worked in ESG Research at MSCI Inc. and gained additional industry experience at the National Stock Exchange of India.
Vishal is a Chartered Accountant (national merit-holder) with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and holds a Master of Science in Finance from the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He is also a CFA® charterholder.
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute.
Abhishek Ashok
M.A., MFE, CFA
Rasib Bhanji
MBA, CFA
Ling Han
M.Sc., MBA, CFA
Grace Huang
MBA, CFA
Marko Kais
CFA
John Kratochwil
MBA, P.Eng.
Henry Kwok
MBA
Renato Monzon
MBA
Aria Samarzadeh
MFin, CFA
Pulkit Sabharwal
MBA
Wai Tong
MBA, P.Eng., CFA
Wyeth Wright
CFA
Lillian Zhang
MBA, CFA
Nicole Geyer
Erin Johnson
B.Sc.
Dagmar Pagel
CFA
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute.
*Subject to change