The "silver economy" is a term meaning how a fast-expanding ageing population creates new costs - but also economic opportunities. Global fund manager Amundi aims to capture this trend in Asia.

Amundi, the international investment house, has launched a Hong Kong-based fund designed to exploit the impact of an ageing global population by seizing opportunities in the “silver economy”. 

The new offering is called the Amundi HK – Global Ageing Planet Opportunities Fund, the firm said in a statement.

The strategy underlying the fund has been run since 2009 by Vafa Ahmadi, head of thematic equities at CPR AM (Amundi Group). 

“We are actually already witnessing massive ageing – in Japan, in Europe, and to a lesser extent in the US. What is remarkable is that Asia is catching up with these countries very quickly. UN statistics show that in 2050, in just 35 years’ time, Europe’s elderly population will grow by 45 per cent – but in Asia it will grow by 114 per cent,” said Ahmadi.

The fund launch is an example of thematic investing, where investors seek out broad trends that cut across more traditional ways of selecting investment ideas. Other themes of recent years include security (particularly since 9/11); water scarcity; the environment, and luxury goods and Asia’s expanding middle class. Firms operating in the thematic space include Pictet, Sarasin and AllianceBernstein, for example.

Xiaofeng Zhong, chief executive for Amundi North Asia, said that one of the benefits as he sees it of the silver economy theme is that it is not correlated with the economic cycle.

“The silver economy is clearly an innovative and new theme in Asia, especially in China and Hong Kong. With more than $1 billion of AuM [in the strategy], Amundi is clearly a pioneer in this theme,” he said.

The issue of ageing populations – and the strains they place on traditional pension arrangements – have been talking points in the investment world for some time and there are a number of funds in different geographies enabling people to tap into the opportunities ageing creates, such as through healthcare/pharmaceutical-orientated funds. In the UK, for example, fund management houses such as Polar Capital, Liontrust, Allianz and Frostrow Capital have funds exposed to this theme.