One month on from the Trump Tantrum – our outlook for 2017

This presentation will explore the key requirements for capital-raising in Africa primarily from the perspective of a business which is raising capital. In addition, we will make some observations which should be useful to an investor which is considering deploying capital in Africa but is new to the continent.

There are a number of key issues for a business to consider if it is raising capital. A capital-seeker needs an honest appreciation of how its investment will be assessed by investors and the investment’s level of investor-readiness. Capital-seekers should ensure that they have good quality professional help and be prepared to pay for this. When prosecuting a capital-raise, it is important to maintain momentum and rhythm in the process. To ensure minimum disruption to the operations, it is important to understand the investors’ interests and approval mechanisms accurately. Finally, raising capital from third parties entails that you know your regulatory obligations.

As a new investor to Africa, it can be daunting to find a safe environment in which you can be confident that you are dealing with quality counterparties, that you avoid expensive mock charges because due diligence reveals fatal flaws which you should have flushed out early in the process, and manage reputational risk as you navigate cultural differences while ensuring sound corporate governance.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to shape the investment management story for 2021. While revenues for investment management firms remained largely intact in 2020, the pandemic still impacted the people, operations, and technology used by investment managers.

Deloitte forecasts weakness for the economy going forward until the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines. What does the path forward look like for investment management firms?

In this outlook, join investor managers and other experts as we will explore the current status and plans for achieving success in 2021 and beyond.
- Industry impact from COVID-19
- Understanding how 2020 shifted investment preferences
- Passive funds and private capital
- Market volatility and price movement at the industry sector and asset class levels
- How active managers are providing value to investors through the volatility
- Will a lumpy economic recovery favor some investment managers over others
- Talent, financial management, and operations emerging stronger than they were at the start of 2020

Panelists:
Hector McNeil, CEO at HANetf
Massy Larizadeh, Director at New Horizons Advisory
Michael Koegler, CEO at Market Alpha Advisors LLC

The ESG world has shifted as the Biden administration takes over with a heavy focus on climate change. What will be the policies driving opportunities in this space? How do we separate the noise of “greenwashing” for the sounds of serious change in energy, carbon and investing? Join us for a great discussion with on these topics.

Hear from three unique perspectives. Laura Craft is the Head of Global ESG Strategy for the private equity firm Heitman. Pooja Kholsa is Vice President Client Development for start-up Entelligent. Andrew Busch is the former 1st Chief Market Intelligence Officer for the US government and Economist/Futurist at BPI.

Key Takeaways:
What are the biggest opportunities with ESG investing?
What are the biggest problems with ESG investing?
What is the Biden administration’s policies toward climate change?

Speakers:
Andrew Busch, Economist, Futurist, Consultant & CEO
Pooja Kholsa, Vice President Client Development, Entelligent
Laura Craft, Senior Vice President Head of Global ESG Strategy, Heitman

Values at Work is a book recently published by the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance. The book and this webinar panel focus specifically on the challenges and opportunities of the current ESG reporting frameworks and suggest some paths forward.

Paul Ellis, Host of The Sustainable Finance Podcast (SFP) and Daniel C. Esty, Co-Editor of Values at Work and Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, have invited several of the 21 Values at Work contributing authors to join this panel. They will discuss how to harness the power of markets and finance to protect the natural world, promote human well-being, and create a more equitable economy and society.

Moderator: Paul Ellis, Founder & Host of The Sustainable Finance Podcast (SFP) at BrightTALK.com and Principal at Paul Ellis Consulting

Panelists:
Daniel C. Esty, Co-Editor of Values at Work: Sustainable Investing and ESG Reporting & Director, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy
Todd Arthur Bridges, Partner and Global Head of Sustainable Investing and ESG Research, Arabesque
Christina Alfonso-Ercan, Corporate ESG Integration Expert & former CEO, Madeira Global

Impact investing and the increasing demand by investors who screen investments for tangible benefits for society and the environment has changed the way the world invests. This seminar, therefore, focuses on how to achieve goals through impact investing.

The belief is that everyone can be an impact investor that is why there is a strong belief that even investors who are not impact investors can make an impact through their portfolios. Based on this belief, the key takeaway will be how to proactively target and incorporate the goals at various stages of the investment cycle thus making the goals the central focus.

Other takeaways will include how to establish portfolios based on the impact goals and how the portfolio selection influences the impact story of every portfolio. The audience will get a sense of approaches that can be adapted to deploy increasing amounts of capital to high-impact projects that address critical societal challenges. Strategies that demonstrate a focus on enterprise development and socio-economic development will also be discussed.

The conversation will also elaborate on some of the impact management approaches (metrics and key performance indicators) notably adopted by investors. In conclusion, methods for impact reporting and accountability will be reviewed.

The integration of material sustainability factors into investment portfolios needs to be intentional and not accidental to achieve targeted impacts. This webinar will explore how the growing demand for integrating ESG considerations into investments must be reconciled with the deluge of data, and the call for tangible metrics which makes a compelling case for quantitative finance because capacity and speed and tools to target a specific set of ESG signals.

Learn how artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) are among the disciplines and techniques that have become available to ESG quant researchers and practitioners to sustain the exponential growth of data with the goal of aligning investors’ values with investment processes, and potentially creating a dual positive impact. Discover different approaches used by investors to achieve long-term goals with impact investing.

Sustainable investment has been attracting increased attention by institutional and individual investors for more than two decades. This is reflected in the more than 3,000 signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) from 60 countries and representing USD 103.4 trillion in assets under management as of 2020.

However, although these efforts may have created a positive impact on investors’ portfolios with higher risk-adjusted returns, they have fallen short of achieving positive people and planet outcomes, as articulated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This contradiction and lack of progress should be very concerning for institutional investors that have expressed their commitment to sustainability. The fact that investors’ actions are not translating into clear positive people and planet outcomes, and reducing negative impacts and externalities, is undermining the credibility of the investment community’s efforts around sustainability. What is more, by not focusing on supporting our shared social and environmental systems, investors are weakening their ability to guarantee lasting returns for their clients and beneficiaries.

So, what can investors do to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs and, by doing so, support the shared social and environmental systems that will fuel long-term investment opportunities?

To answer this question, Beyond Alpha interviewed more than 40 investment managers, asset owners, and thought leaders, globally, and gathered input from extensive secondary research, over a 12-month period.

This presentation will discuss the findings of this study and will offer a different investment approach and set the tools for institutional investors to meaningfully contribute to the SDGs.

As investors pursue different approaches to ESG integration, we'll be looking at the impact that E, S and G scores have had on financial valuations. We'll also evaluate the financial impact of climate transition risk on equity markets, as well as the resilience showed by several MSCI ESG Indexes during the months of the pandemic.

Join us as we discuss additional lenses to portfolios including degree of alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as:

-How do we quantify the contribution to risk and return from ESG?
-Do better-performing ESG businesses outperform?
-Could changes in a company's ESG characteristics be a financial indicator?
-How are investors taking action on climate change?

Speakers:
Rachael Camargo, Executive Director Americas Index Product, MSCI
Raina Oberoi, Managing Director, Head of Americas Index Solutions Research, MSCI

The pandemic of 2020 was a catalyst that forced investors to reconsider the impact they wanted to have on the world. Some profited, others suffered losses - all were changed. This change manifested itself the asset classes & industries they invested in. But what didn’t change was the long-term goals they had been identified before the pandemic hit. How can re-calibrate their portfolios to stay with their long-term goals, while accepting the new world we are in?

As laid out by the United Nations, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals remains an appropriate guideline for all investors to measure success. Despite the turbulence of 2020, re-calibrating their investment policies is needed to align with this framework. The challenge is to not lose sight of the long-term goals that the pandemic did not affect.

Join this webinar to learn:
- Why the SDGs remain relevant for impact investors
- How identify which metrics are right for your long-term investment goals
- How to use the SDGs to help standardise your investment metrics

Speakers:
Richard Zimmerman, WE Family Offices (Moderator)
Oscar Ardila, Head of Investor Relations and Responsible Investing , AshmoreAVENIDA
Igor Tsukerman, President & Chief Investment Officer, Passed Pawn Advisors
More Panelists TBD

In 2020, investors made it increasingly clear what they want from ESG reporting. They want meaningful, decision-relevant disclosures from companies, particularly on environmental and social themes. They also want to see disclosures made under frameworks that emphasise materiality, and greater convergence and standardisation in those frameworks.

With the year-end reporting season in full swing, we examine whether investors are getting what they asked for and what developments in ESG reporting are expected over the course of 2021.

Join this session as we discuss:
*Are companies providing more meaningful disclosures to investors on climate change?
*Investors are focusing more strongly on the S in ESG – how have companies responded?
*Are companies responding to the call to disclose under materiality focused frameworks, particularly TCFD and SASB?
*What progress has been made on convergence in the various ESG frameworks
*What investors can do to encourage companies and framework owners to promote transparency and consistency

Speakers:
Lindsey Stewart CFA, Senior Investor Engagement Manager, KPMG UK
George Richards, Associate Partner, Head of ESG Assurance, KPMG UK
Helena Watson, Director Accounting Advisory Services, KPMG UK
Sophie Gauthier-Beaudoin, Director Investor Engagement, KPMG UK

Towards the SDGs: Robust ES Data from Better Supply Chains Monitoring