Sustainability has become a key topic for organisations that seek to remain relevant and competitive in today’s world. This, of course, has carried over to our industry, making Sustainability one of the main themes of the Partner’s and Eurapco’s strategies.
Given the popularity and importance of the topic, the Eurapco Asset Management Leads and ESG experts met in Turin on the 13th and 14th of October for the annual Asset Management Seminar, this time with a particular focus on impact investing.
Co-hosted by Reale Group and Gothaer, the seminar was attended by participants from the Partners asset management companies, thus creating a perfect opportunity to keep abreast of the latest developments at the Eurapco Partners, network with their peers, and review opportunities for further collaboration across the Eurapco Alliancee.
Mario Calderini, a well-renowned professor at Politecnico di Milano, kicked off the seminar by delivering a presentation introducing Impact Investing. He invited the seminar participants to rethink capitalism and reflect on the finance spectrum’s impact using the trinity: intentionality, measurability, and additionality.
This session was followed by an interactive session during which the Eurapco Partners had the opportunity to showcase their knowledge and best practices that their peers could leverage:
- Kari Pihkala, Portfolio Manager at LocalTapiola, highlighted how the information on impact finance available from corporate green bond reports can help the investors to get an overall picture on the impact of their investment.
- Jeroen van Rumund, Business Development Director at Achmea IM, showcased their Climate Action Fund, an infrastructure fund launched by Achmea IM to respond directly to the energy transition.
- Ben O’Donnell, CIO at Climate Asset Management, presented their Natural Capital Fund offered to investors looking for ways to transition towards a more sustainable growth creation philosophy, which focuses on regeneration rather than extraction.
- Ruud van Maanen, Business Development Manager at Syntrus Achmea, presented their social impact monitor and how it permits investors to measure the social impact of Real Estate investments.
- Micha Balsiger, Specialist in Alternative Investments & Manager Selection at La Mobilière, invited the participants to deep dive into the definition of impact investing that differentiates it from sustainable investments.
- Dario Reda, Diego Bossio and Davide Raimondo, Finance specialists at Reale Group, showcased their new sustainable and thematic equity product and the ideas behind it.
On the second day, Heike Schmitz, Partner at the international law firm of Herbert Smith Freehills, went through the EU Sustainable Finance framework and clarified some of the misunderstandings in the financial industries surrounding the meaning of impact. To round off the seminar, Pushkala Ratan, Asian Pacific Climate Lead – FIG at IFC (World Bank) and Bryan Carter, Global Head of EMD at HSBC, provided us with some insights on impact investing in emerging markets.
After a long period of virtual events, due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the Asset Management participants enjoyed reconnecting physically with their peers. Moreover, the Asset Management Peer Seminar was very well rated by the 48 participants who attended, reaching an NPS of 9.3.
We would like to thank all the attendees for joining us, as well as for the positive feedback received. We will keep working on more events that will increase the value created for and by the Eurapco Partners.
