Animal Day: a fund and ETF investing in pets

More and more attention is being paid to companies that embrace the cause of animal welfare and health.

4 OCT, 2024

By Jose Luis Palmer from RankiaPro Europe

World Animal Day, celebrated on October 4th, is a special day dedicated to celebrating our bond with the animal kingdom. But nowadays, pets are not just companion animals; a whole industry has grown up around animal welfare and care. As a result, this day is also echoed in the investment world, more specifically in the world of mutual funds and ETFs. Animal welfare and health is becoming increasingly important in our society, indeed so important that a report by ProShares indicates that the petcare industry will reach $350 billion by 2027.

Given the impact and the necessity of caring for pets, in this article we introduce you to different vehicles for investing in animal health and welfare.

Allianz Pet and Animal Wellbeing Fund

ISIN	LU1931536152
Morningstar Category	Equity Other
Management Company	Allianz Global Investors
Management Team	Oleksandr Pidlubnyy & Andreas Fruschki

The Allianz Pet and Animal Wellbeing AT, which was launched on 22 January 2019, is a fund that focuses on investments in companies related to animal welfare and care, including sectors such as animal health, pet products, and veterinary services. The fund invests in the global equity markets focusing on companies engaged in animal well-being and pet supplies.

As such a unique fund, Morningstar classifies the fund in the ‘Morningstar Equity Other’ category. The fund, launched by Allianz Global Investors, is managed by Oleksandr Pidlubnyy and Andreas Fruschki, who joined in July 2022. The fund objective according to its factsheet is to ‘attain capital growth over the long term’. The fund is available in a range of currencies, hedged and unhedged. For the purposes of this article, we will use the AT H2-EUR class.

Allianz Global Investors Monthly Report August 2024

Mail Portfolio Holdings

The fund holds shares in 38 companies (data from August 31st), and almost 50% of the assets are distributed among the top 10 holdings.

Geographically, the fund holds more than 65% of its positions in pet and animal wellbeing companies in the United States. Followed by companies based in the UK and Japanese companies.

Fund Performance

Investors who invest in the Allianz Pet and Animal Wellbeing fund, as well as caring about animal welfare and pet care, want to achieve positive returns. Below are the returns achieved by the fund since its launch:

YTD return: 7.71%
1 year performance: 7.69%
3 years performance: -17.44%
5 years performance: 45.51%

ProShares Pet Care ETF (PAWZ)

ISIN	US74348A1455
Morningstar Category	US Fund Miscellaneous Sector
Currency	USD
Management Company	ProShares
Management Team	Alexander V. Ilyasov, Eric C. Silverthorne

ProShares Pet Care ETF (PAWZ) is an ETF that aims to track the performance of an index composed of companies active in the pet care industry. This ETF offers investors the opportunity to participate in the growth potential of the market related to pet products and services and capitalise on people's passion for their pets. According to the managers, seven out of 10 U.S. households have pets, and owners are providing pets with luxury services, premium foods, advanced healthcare, insurance... Seeking to capitalise on this trend, PAWZ invests in a range of companies that stand to potentially benefit from theproliferation of pet ownership.

It is an ETF launched on 5 November 2019 that belongs to the Morningstar US Fund Miscellaneous Sector category and is managed by ProShares. The fund managers are Oleksandr Pidlubnyy, who arrived in August 2020, and Andreas Fruschki, who arrived in March 2023.

Main portfolio companies

The ProShares Pet Care ETF tracks the performance of the FactSet Pet Care Index, and index that consists of U.S. and international companies that potentially stand to benefit from interest in, and resources spent on pet ownership. Let's examine the composition of this ETF's investment portfolio to identify the companies that have received a higher capital allocation.

As in the Allianz fund, the Proshares Pet Care ETF holds about 67% of its positions in US companies and almost 12% in UK companies. However, in the case of the ETF, the third tier in the geographic breakdown is Sweden, whose companies receive about 5% of the investment.