ESG

Chinese developer undercuts Wall Street’s ESG push

9 Mar 2021

Even after Seazen founder Wang Zhenhua’s imprisonment for child molestation, BlackRock, Pimco and others own the company’s bonds. Although his son now chairs the $15 bln group, Wang still controls it. Such examples make socially conscious investor messages sound like lip service.

Telecoms set the business tone in Myanmar

9 Mar 2021

Buyout group CVC may ditch a $700 mln deal for tower assets after a military coup, but Norway’s Telenor, a big taxpayer, and TPG are heavily invested. How the industry deals with the junta offers a proxy measure of how patient foreign investors will be with any new regime.

Japan and Oz utility reflect on climate sins

5 Mar 2021

A fund is suing Tokyo for backtracking on promised renewable-energy incentives. Australian electricity provider AGL just took a $1.5 bln hit on pricey long-term wind contracts. Each would have been better off taking the other’s approach.

Sustainable debt may be too popular for own good

2 Mar 2021

Investors are piling into bonds sold by companies such as H&M or Tesco which punish issuers for missing environmental targets. Demand has been such that the funding is now dirt-cheap. That could distort the price of the securities, and their intended effect.

Guest view: 2021 is tipping point to hit net zero

25 Feb 2021

Economic crises often see innovation budgets cut. With energy efficiency trends worsening governments must hold the line, urge IRENA’s Francesco La Camera and the IEA’s Fatih Birol. A big chunk of decarbonisation will come from technologies that are still at the prototype phase.

Review: Bill Gates engineers climate risk clarity

19 Feb 2021

In “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” the Microsoft founder argues states should throw money at climate change research. Technology will indeed be critical in figuring out how to eliminate carbon emissions. But his book’s main quality is to define the challenge in a graspable way.

BlackRock can push harder on climate change

17 Feb 2021

The $9 trillion asset manager will require heavy polluters to disclose their full carbon dioxide footprints and set short-term targets to cut emissions. That’s an improvement. But until BlackRock leans on index providers to up their game too, it’s not deploying all its heft.

Nestlé, private equity find riches in water flush

17 Feb 2021

The $325 bln group is selling U.S. brands like Poland Spring to One Rock Capital and Metropoulos for $4.3 bln. The buyers get the assets on the cheap, at just 1 times 2019 sales. But the disposal helps Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider’s green goals and protects his premium valuation.

Coal wobble flags Glencore’s green high-wire act

16 Feb 2021

The commodity giant’s EBITDA from the black stuff collapsed in 2020 to just $1.2 bln. Given his increasing climate consciousness, departing CEO Ivan Glasenberg should be happy. But it also shows the risks of a green pivot that requires coal to be used as a financing bridge.

Private equity ESG hoops are too easy to navigate

16 Feb 2021

Lower-rated companies and those controlled by buyout groups are issuing debt with interest payments linked to environmental, social or governance targets. But they’re too mild to change behaviour much. To have real teeth, their conditions need toughening up.

Shell’s new plan tests investors’ green resolve

11 Feb 2021

The Anglo-Dutch group’s decarbonisation strategy will see it stay big in oil longer than BP. European investors now have a choice between Shell’s walking pace and its rival’s handbrake turn into wind and solar. It could become a gauge of how seriously investors take green issues.

Amundi governance cloud has M&A silver lining

10 Feb 2021

Europe’s biggest fund manager named Valérie Baudson CEO. The elevation of current boss Yves Perrier to chairman is an eyesore for a company that flaunts its ESG credentials. Yet given the $16 bln group’s need for acquisitions, keeping the seasoned dealmaker around makes sense.

UK wind auctions are frothy for a reason

8 Feb 2021

The toppy price paid by BP for wind turbine-friendly seabed reflects its desperation to pivot to green energy. But the UK’s subsidy-laden regime is also more attractive than those of other states. That makes wind maven Orsted’s reluctance to match the UK major even more striking.

Capital Calls: Super Bowl, Poison pills, Experian

8 Feb 2021

Concise views on global finance in the Covid-19 era: America’s game doesn’t benefit from scarcity value; Cubic’s poison pill serves a purpose; And Brazil’s cyberattack has a price for Experian.

Anglo takes quick, dirty route to greener pastures

8 Feb 2021

The miner may dump its African coal unit, worth maybe $1 bln. A spinoff could add six times that sum to the $45 bln group’s value by luring eco-conscious investors. Yet it doesn’t cut global emissions, and Anglo American’s iron ore assets may soon feel the environmental heat.

Exxon-Chevron tie-up is right deal, tricky time

1 Feb 2021

A potential $350 bln mega-deal entices on paper with savings that could be valued as high as $20 bln. That would shore up both companies against oil’s darkening future. Exxon would need humility, though, and government a desire for a fossil fuel champion. Both are huge hurdles.

Guest view: Auditors hold key to climate crisis

28 Jan 2021

Accountants are not obvious saviours for a world threatened by global warming, argues Natasha Landell-Mills. But their central role in vetting companies’ financial sustainability, and their ability to act independently of regulators and executives, gives them a duty to be bold.

Bond markets will be new climate vigilantes

27 Jan 2021

Booming demand for sustainable funds and new EU rules will make debt investors more wary of buying securities issued by polluters. There are already signs that is happening in the oil and gas sector. Higher funding costs should be a powerful spur for companies to get serious.

Larry Fink flexes what green muscles he has

26 Jan 2021

The BlackRock boss will require companies to show how they will eliminate carbon emissions by 2050. The $9 trillion asset management giant’s largely passive funds cannot dump climate laggards. But Fink’s latest letter makes clear his active managers will show more strength.

How to pick the hydrogen industry’s future Amazon

22 Jan 2021

The element could play a major role in decarbonisation, which has sent shares in related companies skyrocketing. As with the 1999 tech-stock boom, investors can’t tell which group can corner the market. But they can see which uses of hydrogen will become cost-competitive first.