Water Asset Management: Hunting Liquid Assets

Photo, from left: Disque Deane Jr., Matt Diserio, and Marc Robert of Water Asset Management are betting water prices rise.

Water wasn’t an obvious investment theme when Matt Diserio and Disque Deane Jr. launched their hedge fund 10 years ago. Now, every day brings news of a water shortage or drought.

So have the water stocks targeted by their Manhattan-based Water Asset Management enjoyed a panicky rerating? Not yet. Drought-parched headlines still get upstaged by the latest dot-com initial public offering, so water remains mispriced by consumers and investors.

That’s good for the half-billion dollars that Water Asset has in an equity hedge fund and a newer long-only fund focused on regulated water services, water resources, and the suppliers of pipes, meters, and treatment technologies. Upside remains.

“It is an old industry,” says Diserio, who manages the firm’s stock portfolio, “but it is just becoming a recognized asset class.” Water investing’s upside is ensured by the urgency of our water needs and the fact that this resource remains very cheap in an absolute sense—compared with natural resources like timber or farmland, oil or gold.

The average American family’s water bill is under $40 a month, notes Deane, giving the industry […]

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