impact investing

For those looking to make an impact investment without the pain of market corrections, the solution can be simple: Buy the best-in-class, short the villains, and keep the portfolio neutral. 

Earlier this month, the European Securities and Markets Authority, Esma, warned of further corrections in the stock market. Esma chair Verena Ross said the resilience of the financial system was being tested by “fragile liquidity”. The warning proved justified.

Interest in renewables is playing into the hands of alternative investment funds. Listed closed-end impact funds continue to invest in new energy projects, and investor inflows are following suit. Yet for now it is mainly British investors who recognise the benefits.

Fidelity International, via Luxembourg, is launching a new climate impact fund leveraging the need for improved performance of existing commercial real estate buildings in Europe. Investment Officer sat down with Aymeric de Sérésin, Fidelity’s director of European real estate investments.

Colruyt scion Piet Colruyt (photo) is firmly convinced that impact investing will take off in the coming years. “By 2030, impact investing should reach a 10 per cent market share. It will not remain a niche market,” said Colruyt.

Degroof Petercam on Wednesday said it has strengthened its partnership with Swiss-based impact investor Quadia by participating in a capital increase. Financial details were not disclosed. 

Following the capital increase, Basel-based Hanaku AG becomes a new strategic shareholder next to Degroof Petercam. Hanaku is a net zero emission focused Swiss holding company specialised in energy transition through infrastructure and finance.

Nearly two-thirds of investors in Europe are concerned about greenwashing, even though EU regulation has been in place for more than a year, a new survey released on Thursday showed. More than half of all European investors remain very concerned about the lack of transparency and reported data.

Two-thirds of Europe’s institutional investors plan to stop investing in non-ESG funds by the end of next year, according to fresh survey data released on Monday. Nearly 72 percent of them are willing to pay a premium for ESG products, while a similar majority of European asset managers wants to stop launching non-ESG products by 2024.

Impact investing looks to put investment money to work on bringing about measurable change in the poorer societies of the emerging and frontier markets as well as improving the environment. With the successive shocks of Covid and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine rocking Europe and the West, Philipp Mueller, the CEO of BlueOrchard explains that the residents of countries in its markets can provide inspiration for our wealthier society. The key word: resilience. 

San Lie is to succeed Bas-Jan Blom as Chairman of the Management Board of ASN Impact Investors, the asset management arm of Dutch retail bank ASN. Lie has been head of portfolio management of the asset manager, which has approximately 4.7 billion euro under management, since autumn 2019. “We have formulated ambitious targets for 2030. The central question now is how we are going to get there,” says Lie.

Despite much debate in the market about the hows and whys of ESG integration, impact investing is steadily making its way into the financial mainstream. In 2021, the first year in two decades in which extreme poverty once again rose, with lasting consequences for the world’s most vulnerable people in particular, the financial industry once again demonstrated the importance of real, tangible impact.