Yvonne Schreuder

Hydrogen will play a key role in the energy transition and will therefore offer plenty of opportunities for investors. However, investors should not underestimate the diversity of the hydrogen market, according to Candriam.

The Belgian asset manager notes in its report “Hydrogen power - Enabling a virtuous decarbonisation loop” that recent government measures to highlight the potential of hydrogen as an energy source of the future have boosted the performance of certain hydrogen stocks. Some stocks have even tripled in the last twelve months.

BNP Paribas Asset Management recently launched a long-short strategy aimed at companies related to the energy transition. Portfolio manager Edward Lees (photo) explains how the fund is putting pressure on non-sustainable companies and thus achieve a positive impact on the energy transition.

The Nordea Emerging Starts Fund has managed to achieve a year-to-date return of more than 12% this year. This contrasts strongly with the -5% return of the MSCI Emerging Markets Net Return Index (USD), the fund’s reference index. The fund’s manager Juliana Hansveden explains how the fund managed to achieve this remarkable performance.

The coronavirus crisis has hit the hotel market hard. So one may expect this to negatively affect the demand for hotel real estate as an investment. Nevertheless, Schroder Real Estate Hotels has raised more than €400 million for its first pan-European hotel fund.

The majority of the capital has so far been pledged by major European insurance companies. Robin Hubbard, head of Real Estate Capital at Schroders, declines name any of these, but he does see a common denominator among the institutional investors who have committed to the fund. 

The shift from public to private investments among insurers is continuing and the coronavirus crisis has not changed that so far. The crisis has, however, emphasised the added value of managing risk budgets rather than maintaining strict limits on allocations to different asset classes.

Sustainability fraud is on the radar of few investors and asset managers, but it is potentially much more harmful. The introduction of the EU green taxonomy will only serve as a further incentive for companies to misrepresent their sustainability performance.

“Green fraud”, also known as sustainability fraud, is a deliberate misrepresentation of sustainability data, usually taking the form of incorrect reporting in order to obtain higher ratings/rankings resulting in a better reputation, and thus a higher share price.

The real impact of the corona crisis on private equity valuations has yet to become visible, but it’s already time to look for new direct and co-investments. ‘Past experience has shown that post-crisis years are often good vintage years for new private equity investments,’ says Nils Rode (pictured), CIO of Schroder Adveq, in an interview with Investment Officer.

The market for green bonds is growing fast, but not quite fast enough, according to Sean Kidney (photo), CEO of the Climate Bonds Initiative. Our sister platform Fondsnieuws spoke with him following the State Street Global Advisors Climate Change Seminar. According to Kidney, institutional investors need to take more initiative to encourage governments to facilitate more green investment opportunities. ‘The

The ESG revolution results in a new suite of products that combine passive and active characteristics. Traditionally purely passive products are being tailored to meet specific ESG demands, for example on carbon emissions.