Pictet’s Quiet Rise to the Top of Thematic Investing
Geneva’s most discreet private bank has quietly built a global leadership in thematic investing –turning megatrends into a $72-billion franchise that reshapes how investors think about the future.
Construction cranes tower above Pictet’s headquarters in Geneva, where the bank is adding new stories of glass and steel. The expansion is more than architectural: it reflects Pictet’s ambition to reach higher in global asset management, particularly in the field where it now leads – thematic investing.
Opening the Doors
The bank’s decision to invite journalists from across Europe was unusual. For the first time, Pictet offered a behind-the-scenes look at the strategies that turned a private Geneva partnership into a world leader in one of the fastest-growing segments of asset management.
Raymond Sagayam, one of Pictet’s managing partners, explained how thematic investing evolved from a niche experiment in the 1990s into a platform of 16 strategies with nearly $72 billion in assets under management.
These themes range from water and clean energy to robotics, healthcare innovation, and smart cities – all tied to long-term structural forces, not short-term fads.
Independence as an Edge
Pictet’s private ownership allows it to avoid quarterly market pressures and commit to genuinely long-term horizons.
Sagayam stressed that patience, research depth, and independence underpin the credibility of Pictet’s thematic platform in a space where some competitors have leaned too heavily on marketing slogans.
Beyond ESG Labels
With political pushback against ESG intensifying, Pictet frames its strategies differently. Sagayam reminded the audience that themes like water, clean energy, and nutrition long predate the ESG acronym – and continue to perform because they address real economic needs.
For Pictet, sustainability is not branding, but investment conviction.
Global Business
Today, Pictet Asset Management accounts for a third of the group’s business, managing 250 billion francs of the group’s 724 billion francs in assets.
About a quarter of that is thematic. According to «Morningstar», Pictet ranks number one globally in active thematic equities.
Origins in Water
The franchise traces back to Hans Peter Portner, who launched Pictet’s first thematic strategy on water in the mid-1990s. That small experiment has since grown into a $72-billion platform supported by more than 70 professionals and 14 external advisory boards.
Portner describes the work as «tracing the great rivers of global transformation» – demographic shifts, technology, and sustainability.
Finding Megatrends
Pictet’s analysts track a universe of roughly 1,800 stocks, working with the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies to map emerging megatrends.
Each strategy has a horizon of at least 15 years, avoiding what Portner calls «investing in misery» and instead focusing on companies driving positive transformation.
From Robotics to Luxury
The event showcased Pictet’s diverse line-up.
- Robotics has outperformed the MSCI ACWI by more than five percentage points annually since 2015.
- Digital invests in high-conviction bets within a $30-trillion universe of tech companies.
- Premium Brands captures the global luxury economy, with names like Ferrari and Brunello Cucinelli.
Several flagship strategies, such as Water and Clean Energy, have been running for more than 20 years.
Swiss Financial Engineering with a Long Horizon
For Pictet, thematic investing is less about chasing the latest hype and more about engineering durable portfolios that capture the world’s structural transitions.
With patience, research, and independence, the Geneva-based bank has built the most established thematic platform in global asset management.
Like the new glass towers rising above its headquarters, Pictet’s approach signals that long-term conviction – not short-term fashion – is what ultimately reshapes the future of finance.
