Perennial Value Management
Perennial Value Management is an Australian active fund manager, founded in 2000 and headquartered in Sydney, whose water exposure runs through Perennial Better Future, its sustainable-equities strategy. The Better Future team backs ASX-listed companies across water and environmental services. As of June 2026, Perennial has invested in three water companies across eight disclosed deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Perennial Value Management is, first, an Australian value-equities house. John Murray founded it in 2000 to buy unloved listed companies cheaply, and it grew into Perennial Partners, a Sydney family of specialist investment teams. Water is not the headline here; it arrives through one of those boutiques.
The boutique a water reader should care about is Perennial Better Future. Launched as a standalone sustainable-equities team in 2021, it buys ASX-listed (Australian Securities Exchange) small and mid-cap companies whose revenue comes from solving problems, water management and environmental services among them, and it deliberately avoids companies that profit from harm. Portfolio manager Damian Cottier and Emilie O'Neill, Co-Head of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing, run it, leaning on Perennial's wider bench of small-cap analysts.
Across Perennial's disclosed water activity, the pattern is listed Australian environmental technology rather than private venture bets: water and wastewater treatment, plus the monitoring software that water utilities run on. Three water companies across eight disclosed deals is a modest footprint, and the water-commitment read here is Occasional, not central, which is the honest framing of a generalist manager that touches the sector through an ESG lens.
What earns Perennial a water investor's attention is the direction of travel. The Better Future mandate ties capital to measurable environmental outcomes, and on a listed Australian market thin on dedicated, water-only companies, a disciplined ESG small-cap manager is one of the few public vehicles that keeps buying the theme. If that mandate grows, Perennial's water exposure grows with it.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
Portfolio · 3 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Perennial Value Management invest in?
- Perennial Value Management is an Australian value-equities manager that invests across ASX-listed companies. Its water and environmental exposure comes through Perennial Better Future, a sustainable-equities strategy backing ASX-listed (Australian Securities Exchange) small and mid-cap firms in themes such as water management, clean technology and environmental services.
- Is Perennial Value Management a water-focused fund?
- No. Perennial Value Management is a broad Australian fund-management house, and water is a small part of its book. As of June 2026 it has backed three water companies across eight disclosed deals, and its water commitment reads as Occasional rather than central.
- Who runs Perennial's sustainable and water investing?
- Perennial's sustainable strategy, Perennial Better Future, is run by portfolio manager Damian Cottier with Emilie O'Neill as Co-Head of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing. Launched in 2021, the team screens for ASX-listed companies whose revenue solves environmental problems, including water, and avoids those that profit from harm.
- Is Perennial Value Management the same as a16z Perennial or Perennial Holdings?
- No. Perennial Value Management, part of Sydney-based Perennial Partners, is an Australian listed-equities manager founded in 2000. It is unrelated to a16z Perennial, the United States wealth-management business, and to Perennial Holdings, the Singapore real-estate group, despite the shared name.
- Where is Perennial Value Management based?
- Perennial Value Management is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, at 88 Phillip Street, with a Melbourne presence as well. Founded in 2000 by John Murray, it now operates as part of Perennial Partners, a house of specialist Australian investment boutiques managing several billion dollars.