stolinskie My investments, News, Tips

Do not invest through Ethex

I would not advise using Ethex to invest in ethical investments. It saddens me to say this, but they are not a serious organisation.

Over the years, I have pursued ethical investment through various groups including Energy4All, Abundance, Ecotricity, Energise Africa, Ethex, Thrive and Triodos.

The only manager which I have ever had any real issues with is Ethex.

I first used Ethex to invest back in 2019. I have recently had several issues and I do not want to use them any more as either agents or registrars since I cannot trust them with my money. Fortunately, some groups using Ethex such as Grimsby Community Energy also offer the option to invest directly.

Here’s why i don’t want to use Ethex any more:

1 At the beginning of 2024, I decided to buy a house. In order to do this, Ineeded to recoup some investments. I contacted the various groups named above, including Ethex. Now, in January 2025, basically a year later, I have purchased my house but I am still waiting to hear back from Ethex regarding the recoup of some of my investments. I reagd that as unacceaptbale, escpailly since I got a yes or no answer from all the other groyups 6 months ago.

2 As part of investing nowadays one must go through the process of AML (anti money laundering checks). Ethex wanted to do this when I made a new investments, as is normal. I sent the documents they required by post and then Ethex lost the documents for two weeks. First of all I was fobbed off, then after making a complaint, I learnt that the address they use for correspondence is shared and my private documents were left unattended for two weeks in a shared mail room before being picked up, in a clear GDPR breach. Ethex assured me nobody else had acces to the documents but that is patently a lie if it is a shared address. Furthermore, they didn’t even apologise for their mistake until I pressed them to do so. Their rationale for the error was that they are a small organisation and that the person I was dealing with was new at their post – I’m not sure why any part of this explanation was supposed to make me feel better about their incompetence.

3 Regarding anther investment which I recouped, I asked for the repayment , then waited patiently then checked in three months later and it turned out Ethex had received the money but had negletced to transfer it to me. When they eventually did so, they didn’t even offer to pay the lost interest on £10,000. Again this is unacceptable.

For these three reasons, I do not regard Ethex as a serious organisation to trust with my money. This saddens me since I want to invest my money ethically on my criteria and even now in 2025, the options to do that are quite limited. Any one of these three errors would be forgivable, but not all three over the course of one year.

Therefore, as the opportunity arises I will reclaim my money and for future investments I will query with groups if I can invest in a way which does ot use Ethex as manager or registrar. Other registrars such as for example Neville have always been fine to deal with.

I hope Ethex actually become more professional and do not repeat these mistakes again.= with other customers.

stolinskie News, Tips

Invest in Grimsby Community Energy

This looks right up my alley – and it’s nice if you email them directly you don’t need to use Ethex since I have no confidence in their service.

“Over the last eight years we have raised, £444,732 of investment to deliver renewable energy projects across Grimsby, Cleethorpes and the wider North East Lincolnshire, installing 534kW of solar PV (photovoltaic) panels, generating 157MWh of clean electricity and saving 184t of CO2. Since 2016 we have been raising funds through community share offers at worthwhile not-for-profit local organisations. Local people and organisations have invested in us to support their community and receive a fair financial return.”

Invest
filmuncher Fund Review, Tips

Fund review – Baillie Gifford Positive Change Fund

The Positive Change Fund . After a review in diy investor, who said “For me, the holy grail of investing is a positive return relative to the market for the degree of equity/bond risk combined with a positive contribution towards tackling climate change” I am interested to check it out further.

The Fund will invest at least 90% in shares of companies of any size, any country and in any sector, whose products or behaviour make a positve impact on society and / or the environment in the investment managers opinion

OK so I am listening …

The Fund invests in an actively managed portfolio of 25-50 global high quality growth companies which can deliver positive change in one of four areas: Social Inclusion and Education, Environment and Resource Needs, Healthcare and Quality of Life; and Base of the Pyramid (addressing the needs of the world’s poorest populations).

46% US, 26 % Europe. Hmm let’s see the Top10:

TESLA – cool to see this is number one at 8% – a good choice – YES

DEXCOM – never heard of ’em. ” A company that develops, manufactures, and distributes continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management” – benefit of doubt? no i can’t see much on their website, so NO

M3 – “Providing medical-related services through the use of the Internet” hmm yeah i guess, weak YES

TSMC – semiconductors in Taiwan YES

Illumina – “develops, manufactures, and markets integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function” uh oh sounds scary, what does that means? it means genome sequencing – hmmm PASS

ASML – Dutch, semiconductors YES

MercadoLibre – Hmmm ebay for Latin America … and the “largest online purchasing platform of sustainable products in Latin America” … sustainability report uhhhh PASS

NIBE – “market leader for domestic heating products in the Nordic countries, Poland and the Czech Republic” YES

Kingspan group – Irish building materials company …. the Sustainability and Responsibility Report 2017 (in 2020!?) – a doubtful YES

Moderna – Messenger RNA research – PASS

Well done. Baillie Gifford on my new methodology THIS PASSED!! (JUST)

VERDICT = YES, i will add this to my list of possible investments

Also see this article

filmuncher Tips

responsAbility

Hmm this looks interesting so I’ll post it here, unfortunately it’s not available with my investment service therefore I probably won’t look into it further … seems to be only for Western European mainland investors. Could be good for someone!

https://www.responsability.com/en/first-global-fair-trade-fund-launched

responsAbility is launching the responsAbility Fair Trade Fund, the first investment fund targeting the development potential of small farmers in developing economies. The responsAbility Fair Trade Fund, which was set up in close cooperation with the fund management company Credit Suisse Funds AG and licensed for public distribution in Switzerland by FINMA, provides easy access to a widely diversified and professionally managed portfolio in the agricultural segment. The fund enables investors to gain financial returns while supporting fair trade and improving the lives of small farmers in developing economies.

Bananas, chocolate, coffee – fairly traded products are proving increasingly popular. Most of this agricultural produce comes from small farmers in developing economies. Such farmers often face an array of challenges such as insecure food supply, lack of access to markets, little negotiating power, volatile commodity prices, and depopulation of the countryside. Furthermore, they lack the know-how and financial resources to increase their output and efficiency.

FAIR TRADE OPENS PROSPECTS FOR SMALL FARMERS

A highly positive, market-oriented approach to improving the economic position of small farmers over the years has been fair trade. Its key features are a guaranteed minimum price for produce and what is known as a fair trade premium. The guaranteed minimum price assures a basic subsistence income for small farmers, protects them from fluctuating commodity prices, and enables them to plan with security. Cooperatives play a central role, acting as the link between small farmers and the markets. They handle many vital tasks such as financing, trade, processing, training, and fair trade certification.

FAIR TRADE: A GROWTH MARKET

Growth in demand has been very pleasing, with annual growth rates standing at around 20%. However, growth also increases the need for finance, especially for the cooperatives. Without this working capital, cooperatives and small farmers cannot profit, or can only profit to a limited extent, from the growth in fair trade.

ENABLING GROWTH – PROFITING FROM DEVELOPMENT

This is where the worldwide unique responsAbility Fair Trade Fund, classified as “Other funds for alternative investments” associated with particular risk (“responsAbility Fair Trade Fund”), comes in. The fund provides working capital to agricultural producers and trade organizations (usually cooperatives) to export or prefinance their harvests, for example. To a lesser extent, it also funds the procurement of means of production. Most of its investments are placed in fixed-interest debt securities, issued by cooperatives for terms of up to one year.

The responsAbility Fair Trade Fund has been open for subscription by investors with a medium- to long-term horizon since December 21, 2011. Little correlation with other asset classes and stable returns (historic values) also make this investment fund an ideal means of portfolio diversification.

A Swiss investment fund, the responsAbility Fair Trade Fund is the first of its kind in the world to simplify and professionalize access to fair trade investments for a broad range of investors. Only close cooperation and exceptional commitment by specialists of all parties involved have made this possible. Apart from responsAbility Social Investments AG (responsAbility), Credit Suisse Funds AG and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA played a major role.

Being licensed to sell to the public in Switzerland is very important to responsAbility. Our clients appreciate Switzerland’s security and regulations that serve to protect the investors. The responsAbility Fair Trade Fund is further proof of the innovative strength of our financial center,” explains responsAbility CEO Klaus Tischhauser.

Since its foundation ten years ago, responsAbility has specialized in investment solutions with an emphasis on development. Its investments in developing and emerging economies contribute to positive development in society, while targeting long-term investment returns. responsAbility already boasts a track record of around seven years (USD 125 million invested) in fair trade. It deploys an experienced team and a global network. Since inception in December 2011, the responsAbility Fair Trade Fund has facilitated an additional USD 10 million of finance.

https://www.responsability.com/en/first-global-fair-trade-fund-launched