New York Times (January 20)
“The money flowing out of funds that invest in companies with environmental, social and governance principles has gone from a trickle to a torrent as investors sour on a sector hit by green-washing concerns, red-state boycotts and boardroom debates.” The phrase ESG “has become increasingly politicized” and has even “been scrubbed from the World Economic Forum’s official program in Davos, Switzerland, after being on the agenda in previous years.”
Tags: Boardroom debates, Boycotts, Davos, ESG, Funds, Green-washing, Invest, Investors, Money, Outflows, Politicized, Red state, Scrubbed, Sour, Torrent
Bloomberg (January 11)
“Years of harrowing losses have left Chinese stocks with a diminished standing in global portfolios.” The trend is “likely to accelerate as some of the world’s biggest funds distance themselves from the risk-ridden market.” Furthermore, what began “as a performance-driven exodus now risks becoming a structural shift due to a toxic combination of doubts over Beijing’s long-term economic agenda, a prolonged property crisis and strategic competition with the US.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Competition, Diminished, Funds, Global portfolios, Harrowing, Losses, Property crisis, Risk, Stocks, Structural, Toxic
Newsweek (December 2)
“The failure to conduct basic due diligence of Bankman-Fried is after all what led to his ability to take so many people for a ride. That refusal to investigate reflects the complexity of the crypto industry and the difficulty involved in tracking the flow of funds and risk on the blockchain. But it’s also further evidence of how the media gets hoodwinked by Robin Hood narratives, something many technology leaders have learned to leverage well.”
Tags: Bankman-Fried, Blockchain, Complexity, Crypto industry, Difficulty, Due diligence, Evidence, Failure, Funds, Hoodwinked, Investigate, Media, Risk, Robin Hood, Tracking
Institutional Investor (August 16)
“With everybody worried about a cash crunch, the private equity secondaries market is expected to hit a new record. Investors are expected to sell stakes in private equity funds worth $153 billion in 2023, according to the latest PE secondaries report from Lazard’s private capital advisory team.”
Tags: $153 billion, 2023, Cash crunch, Funds, Investors, Lazard, Private equity, Record, Secondaries market, Sell, Stakes
Institutional Investor (May 25)
“Managers that want to run fixed-income funds with a focus on environmental, social, and governance factors face larger research challenges than those in stocks. But the massive opportunity in bonds may make the uphill battle worth it.” Compared to equities, the “patchwork of standards” increases the “risks of ESG fixed income funds.”
Tags: Bonds, Challenges, Equities, ESG, Fixed income, Funds, Managers, Opportunity, Patchwork, Research, Risks, Standards, Stocks, Uphill
Financial Times (May 13)
For some time, “private equity firms have set their sights on the many profitable yet unloved parts of corporate Japan that sit under the umbrellas of conglomerates such as Toshiba, Hitachi and others.” Currently, “the attention on Japan could not be any greater. Much of the ‘dry powder’ sitting in funds raised for Asian dealmaking is now less likely to be used in China than to back increasingly ambitious deals in Japan.”
Tags: Ambitious, Asian, China, Conglomerates, Dealmaking, Dry-powder, Funds, Hitachi, Japan, Private equity, Profitable, Toshiba, Unloved
Investment Week (January 12)
“In response to the Financial Conduct Authority’s discussion paper Sustainability disclosure requirements and investment labels, the Association of Investment Companies proposed that ‘demanding standards’ should be set for any funds that make environmental, sustainable or governance claims.”
Tags: Demanding standards, Disclosure requirements, Discussion paper, ESG claims, FCA, Funds, Investment labels, Response, Sustainability
Investment Week (December 21)
“The asset and wealth management industry is set to face a busy year of regulation, with the impact of recently passed legislation, including sustainability disclosure requirements and new listings rules, combining with that yet to come, such as long term asset funds. Past decisions will also bring change, as LIBOR also comes to an end this year, with very slim exception, while the spectre of Brexit is far from banished.”
Tags: Asset management, Brexit, Disclosure requirements, Funds, Impact, Legislation, LIBOR, Listings rules, Regulation, Sustainability, Wealth
Wall Street Journal (June 4)
“Investors have piled into new carbon-credit-trading funds, helping make the upstart market one of the best-performing commodities-related investments of the past year.” In Europe, the trading price for carbon credits “has jumped 135% over the past 12 months and recently hit a series of records as economic activity rebounded from pandemic lockdowns. Only lumber, driven higher by the housing boom, has proved a better commodities investment.”
Tags: Best-performing, Carbon credits, Commodities, Europe, Funds, Housing boom, Investments, Investors, Lockdowns, Lumber, Market, Pandemic, Rebounded, Records, Trading, Upstart
Institutional Investor (August 25)
“ESG investments have proven effective at reducing risk and delivering returns comparable to those of non-ESG oriented funds. During the stock market collapse in the first quarter of 2020, Morningstar found that all but two out of 26 ESG indexes suffered fewer losses than their conventional counterparts. Studies from Morgan Stanley and MSCI have found no financial trade-off in the returns delivered by ESG funds relative to traditional funds.”
Tags: Collapse, Effective, ESG, Funds, Investments, Losses, Morningstar, MSCI, Reducing risk, Returns, Stock market, Trade-off
