Responsible Investing

  • EU: the musical, Hong Kong: the swan song, and a menacing ballet

    EU: the musical, Hong Kong: the swan song, and a menacing ballet

    Each week Keeping Tabs beings you the most interesting and entertaining reading from around the web that we have uncovered. This week, the perils of the EU recovery fund through the lens of the subject of Broadway's hottest show, a menacing whiteness of swans and a grim view of Hong Kong's future in finance.

    31 Jul 2020
  • DoL proposal misses the mark on ESG

    DoL proposal misses the mark on ESG

    The US Department of Labour (DoL) has proposed what it characterises as a reiteration of what has always been required of retirement fiduciaries — that they act in the best interest of their beneficiaries — urging them to disregard ESG considerations in investment decisions. In doing so, it appears not to have noticed the last decade in financial markets, which has shown that ESG investing is very much in investors’ interests.

    30 Jul 2020

  • EM restructuring — spare us the posturing

    After striking a remarkably swift restructuring deal with creditors, Ecuador’s government deserves praise. But it is unrealistic to expect such smooth discussions elsewhere, as emerging market sovereign defaults inevitably rise.

    09 Jul 2020
  • EBA finally receives approval for exec director

    EBA finally receives approval for exec director

    François-Louis Michaud was approved as the next executive director of the European Banking Authority on Wednesday. The EBA’s previous choice was rejected by parliamentarians, and this nomination faced scrutiny too over gender balance.

    09 Jul 2020
  • Impact investor Durreen Shahnaz: ‘we must go beyond social bonds’

    Impact investor Durreen Shahnaz: ‘we must go beyond social bonds’

    Durreen Shahnaz is founder and chief executive of Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), which says it created the world's first social stock exchange. She tells GlobalCapital about how we can rebuild a better economy, with the help of capital markets, after coronavirus.

    08 Jul 2020
  • Global warming temperature scores to radically simplify green investing

    Global warming temperature scores to radically simplify green investing

    CDP, the leading platform through which companies report their carbon emissions, has become the latest organisation to launch a potentially influential system of temperature ratings, so investors can work out how much global warming each company’s plans will theoretically lead to — and hence the overall temperature of a portfolio.

    07 Jul 2020
  • Film director Richard Curtis: ‘the time for tinkering is coming to an end’

    Film director Richard Curtis: ‘the time for tinkering is coming to an end’

    If UK pension savers knew how their money was invested, funds would be more inclined to invest exclusively in environmental, social and governance (ESG) assets. So argues Richard Curtis, the screenwriter, director and co-founder of Comic Relief. He has launched a public campaign, Make My Money Matter, to pressure UK pension funds to invest more sustainably.

    03 Jul 2020
  • YPF swap not distressed but Argentina battles on

    YPF swap not distressed but Argentina battles on

    As tensions between Argentina and its largest bondholders climbed this week, the government’s prize asset, oil firm YPF, differentiated itself with a debt exchange that, according to rating agencies, does not punish creditors — unlike the sovereign’s proposals.

    02 Jul 2020
  • Critical hedge fund sees better way to do ESG

    Critical hedge fund sees better way to do ESG

    Environmental, social and governance investors have been patting themselves on the back this year because their funds have tended to outperform during the coronavirus crisis. But a San Francisco hedge fund believes they are doing a poor job of shielding investors from the general risk of the stockmarket and more quantitative methods would improve the outcome.

    02 Jul 2020

  • Deutsche sees investors’ interest in ESG fading

    A survey by Deutsche Bank this week challenged the consensus that investors' interest in environmental, social and governance funds has been intensified by the coronavirus crisis. On the contrary, it argues: appetite has weakened.

    02 Jul 2020
  • PTPN’s missed payment raises fears about Indonesia support

    PTPN’s missed payment raises fears about Indonesia support

    An Indonesian palm oil company has become the latest to fall victim to rising worries among loans bankers about government support. The company missed a payment last week, after bankers rejected an earlier covenant waiver request. Pan Yue reports.

    02 Jul 2020
  • Hilong’s exchange offer fails to avoid default

    Hilong’s exchange offer fails to avoid default

    A long-running attempt by Chinese oil company Hilong Holding to complete an exchange offer on a dollar bond has failed, after it confirmed a default this week. The situation has caused analysts to speculate on how it could have executed its deal better. Alice Huang reports.

    02 Jul 2020
  • ‘Father of venture capital’ Sir Ronald Cohen: We need a 'New Deal' on corporate impact

    ‘Father of venture capital’ Sir Ronald Cohen: We need a 'New Deal' on corporate impact

    Sir Ronald Cohen, one of the UK’s foremost private equity entrepreneurs, believes the Covid-19 crisis is an opportunity to transform western capitalism into a socially responsible enterprise that values a company’s impact on society as much as its profits. Cohen talks to GlobalCapital about the tremendous challenges facing the global economy, and how it can be transformed for the better.

    30 Jun 2020
  • FICO launches consumer resilience score

    FICO launches consumer resilience score

    FICO on Monday released a new scoring tool to help lenders gauge the resilience of consumers in an economic downturn, though sources say it could take up to six months from the end of government support programs before the data can be usable as current data is obscured by a range of debt forbearance policies.

    29 Jun 2020
  • Is social unrest an ESG issue?

    Is social unrest an ESG issue?

    Popular discontent could well rise in many countries as the coronavirus crisis hits the poorest worst of all. In the past, unrest may have only worried government bond investors to the extent that it damaged creditworthiness. But, as market participants become ever more socially conscious, DBRS Morningstar’s Nichola James says that we can also apply an ESG (environmental, social and governance) lens to it.

    24 Jun 2020
  • Adnoc rakes in capital in energy infrastructure deal

    Adnoc rakes in capital in energy infrastructure deal

    The United Arab Emirates’ state-owned oil company, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), has raised more than $10bn of investment from a consortium of firms in exchange for a stake in select pipelines. This is the second deal in 12 months in which Adnoc has raised international capital by leasing part of its pipeline network.

    24 Jun 2020
  • Exxon Mobil to carve whole euro curve in one stroke

    Exxon Mobil to carve whole euro curve in one stroke

    Exxon Mobil, the US oil major, is due to establish a bond curve in euros for the first time, as it continues building up cash as the hydrocarbons industry is pummelled by the coronavirus pandemic.

    22 Jun 2020
  • Keeping Tabs — mind the banks, boomers and ESG, US housing discrimination

    Keeping Tabs — mind the banks, boomers and ESG, US housing discrimination

    Each week, Keeping Tabs brings you the very best of what we in the GlobalCapital newsroom have found most useful, interesting and informative from around the web. This week: the challenges facing European bank supervisors, attitudes to ethical investing by generation and gender, and how racial inequality rears its head in the US housing market.

    19 Jun 2020
  • Newmarket begins fresh quest for impact in securitization

    Newmarket begins fresh quest for impact in securitization

    Securitization is the most mathematical of debt markets, and synthetic securitization its most abstract department. But in a niche within that niche is a small investment firm, for which the market is all about ideas and people. Jon Hay reports.

    18 Jun 2020
  • Euronext broadens ESG offering

    Euronext broadens ESG offering

    Euronext has laid out a series of initiatives to meet the ever-growing interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, but has not yet recognised transition bonds in the absence of an industry standard. It also highlighted the advantage of issuers conducting virtual roadshows.

    18 Jun 2020
  • BP sells largest ever hybrid bond in debut, more oilers expected

    BP sells largest ever hybrid bond in debut, more oilers expected

    BP, the UK oil company, completed the biggest ever hybrid bond sale this week with a $12bn-equivalent debut issuance across multiple currencies, leading to rising expectations that other oil majors without hybrid debt will be entering the market too.

    18 Jun 2020
  • LGBTQIA+ job equality ruling could boost US economy

    LGBTQIA+ job equality ruling could boost US economy

    Campaigners for equality for lesbian, gay and transgender people in the US hailed a historic victory on Monday, when the Supreme Court for the first time made it illegal throughout the country for employers to discriminate against staff on grounds of sexual or gender orientation.

    17 Jun 2020
  • Big bond issuers pressed to disclose on climate, water and forests

    Big bond issuers pressed to disclose on climate, water and forests

    A third of the top 50 corporate bond issuers are among companies that investors have named and shamed for not disclosing adequately through the CDP reporting platform about the environmental risks they face as bondholders grow more engaged alongside shareholders in pushing for this information.

    16 Jun 2020
  • Banks must be held to high standards in public

    Banks must be held to high standards in public

    The green bond market lets investors scrutinise the way issuers use their money, promoting good behaviour. Now, the focus is turning to the middle men: the banks. It is a welcome iteration, given their importance in financing either a green or brown future, but we must push them further.

    11 Jun 2020
  • IFC shifts ESG focus onto banks with new dealer scorecards

    IFC shifts ESG focus onto banks with new dealer scorecards

    The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has launched the first systematic process by an issuer to formally integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into choosing its bookrunners. Senior funding officials and sustainability bankers have welcomed the initiative as an important evolution in the use of ESG in capital markets, write Burhan Khadbai and Jon Hay.

    11 Jun 2020
  • Keeping Tabs — human rights, high yield, the herd... and Rip Van Winkle

    Keeping Tabs — human rights, high yield, the herd... and Rip Van Winkle

    Each week, GlobalCapital journalists share some of the most interesting things they have been reading, from the profound to the quirky. This week has been marked by widespread protests across the US and the wider world, in reaction to an unarmed African-American man, George Floyd, dying while a policeman knelt on his neck in Minneapolis.

    05 Jun 2020

  • EM companies engage with ESG but gains marginal

    Almost three quarters of emerging market companies have an environmental, social and governance, or sustainability policy in place — although that has not yet translated into guaranteed higher returns, according to research by Bank of America.

    04 Jun 2020
  • EM investors glow for Kazatomprom block

    EM investors glow for Kazatomprom block

    Samruk-Kazyna, the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund, raised $206.7m on Tuesday night through a share placing in Kazatomprom, the country’s state uranium company. Emerging markets investors, who have been lacking new paper during the coronavirus crisis, lapped up the shares.

    03 Jun 2020
  • Meat and fish industry could incubate next pandemic

    Meat and fish industry could incubate next pandemic

    The meat, dairy and fish industries are harbouring grave risks of causing future pandemics, and must radically improve their safety procedures, according to an investor coalition which controls $21tr of assets.

    03 Jun 2020
  • Racial injustice: investors have power

    Racial injustice: investors have power

    Capital markets players love to talk about being socially responsible. The death of George Floyd shows talk has got society nowhere. It is time for action.

    02 Jun 2020
  • Flutter Entertainment bets on growth with £812m share sale

    Flutter Entertainment bets on growth with £812m share sale

    Flutter Entertainment, the parent of bookies Paddy Power and Betfair, has sold £812m of new shares to institutional investors to reduce debt and position itself for further growth once sporting events around the world are allowed to resume and its retail stores are permitted to reopen.

    29 May 2020
  • Citi sustainability: grey heads and millennials

    Citi sustainability: grey heads and millennials

    Citigroup’s new architecture to make its banking, capital markets and advisory (BCMA) group a fitter competitor in sustainability and ESG issues emphasises two channels of communication, according to Manuel Falcó, co-head of BCMA, through the most senior rainmakers and a cadre of younger enthusiasts.

    28 May 2020
  • Deutsche Bank: green laggard… or leader?

    Deutsche Bank: green laggard… or leader?

    Deutsche Bank has become the latest big bank to announce a new sustainable finance target, with an eye-catching commitment to €200bn of financing between now and 2025 — but its policy highlights the difficulty for investors of comparing banks and deciding which are greener.

    26 May 2020

  • First HY debut since virus crisis buoyed by oil storage boom

    Rubis Terminal made the first European high yield debut since the start of the coronavirus crisis, issuing a new €410m bond to fund a minority investment buyout by infrastructure specialist I Squared Capital. Business has boomed at the company, which operates bulk liquid storage, thanks to the collapsing oil price.

    14 May 2020
  • Network Homes looks for PPs as market expects suspended deals to return

    Network Homes looks for PPs as market expects suspended deals to return

    Network Homes is looking for US private placements, according to several market sources. The London housing association is the first of its type to return to the market after a string of prospective PPs were suspended during the initial peak of the pandemic crisis. Sources expect these postponed deals to return shortly.

    13 May 2020
  • Tax misers sell off worse than market in pandemic

    Tax misers sell off worse than market in pandemic

    Companies that pay little tax have suffered worse share price declines during the coronavirus pandemic than the market as a whole — a result that suggests investors may at last be taking notice of this long ignored aspect of corporate governance.

    12 May 2020