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Wealth & Society Summit 2024
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Sept, 26-27 Vienna, Austria
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TBLI Radical Truth Podcast
TBLI Talk: The Key Man - A Wakeup Call for Investors with Simon Clark and Will Louch
THE KEY MAN tells the story of a man who raised billions of dollars for investment by vowing to end global poverty through capitalism but ended up arrested on fraud, theft and racketeering charges and facing up to 291 years in jail. Arif Naqvi, the founder of Dubai-based private equity firm Abraaj, was a pioneering impact investor who claimed to seek out ways to make money and do good in the emerging markets of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Bill Gates invested $100 million in Arif's $1 billion fund to build hospitals and clinics in poor countries. The World Bank and the American, British, and French governments also invested in this fund.
The UN, Interpol, McKinsey, Harvard, LSE, KPMG, Bank of America and the World Economic Forum were among the elite organizations which backed Arif.
Listen to the full podcast
Zero Corporate Responsibility
Two years ago today I publicly fired my client Shell, because Shell kills, Shell sacrifices, Shell shows zero regard for life.
Yesterday I attended the Shell Investor AGM in London. This year I chose not to go inside, but to join fellow justice-seekers outside the Intercontinental Hotel, in Greenwich. I had the chance to speak at the event and this is what I said.
Shell operate exploitatively around the world, but they do it more in Nigeria than anywhere else I have witnessed.
And this approach is a choice. Shell choose to operate recklessly in Nigeria and the Niger Delta. The ultimate exploitation.
Have you ever wondered why the North Sea doesn’t look like the Niger Delta? Polluted beyond recognition from its pre-Shell Edenesque-self?
It’s down to regulation and operational standards. Shell do not give a toss about standards in the Niger Delta. And for decades they have actively coerced successive governments to go soft on regulation and legislation, that would protect the people and environment in oil-bearing communities. This has lead to clear-cut cases of ecocide, and arguably cases of genocide, particularly against the Ogoni people. [Wik]
The devastation from Shell’s exploitation has been described as like
"the fallout from a war zone, without the ready presence of international media to document it"
The Niger Delta is a sacrifice zone.
I'd like to speak about how that devastation manifests, not historically, but right here, right now.
Here’s a snapshot of what it is like….from my research and observations over 12 years as an insider and an outsider.
Around 2 million people are living within 3 miles of gas flaring sites across Nigeria. Exposed to the black fumes and toxic smoke they emit, to their excessive heat and roaring noise. Imagine that.
In communities close to gas flaring, residents frequently report respiratory problems, severe skin rashes and eye irritations, and worse, increased cancers, health problems experienced by over two-thirds of the population there. [UON]
If you want more facts and figures, then know that the average life expectancy in the oil & gas bearing communities in the Niger Delta is just 41 years, 10+ years below the national average [FES]. Amongst this gathering that means about half of us would already be dead, including myself. Imagine that.
Know that conceiving a child within 7 miles of an oil spill site increases neo-natal and infant mortality by 100%. [NLM]
But these are not just numbers they are real people, with lives and loves, and families, and communities around them.
Read full article
Most companies say sustainability is driving value creation
By: STEVE KERCH - Equity News
Companies across the globe are pursuing sustainability goals mostly because they believe the strategy will create value for their shareholders, a new study from Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing finds.
Compliance with government regulations and believing they have a moral responsibility to do so were also listed as top reasons for prioritizing sustainability, according to the results of a survey of more than 300 corporation executives with decision-making responsibilities for sustainability efforts. Only 1% of those executives said sustainability was “not material” to their operations.
“Sustainability strategies and core business strategies are converging,” Jessica Alsford, chief sustainability officer at Morgan Stanley said in a release announcing the study results. “Companies increasingly see sustainability factors as integral to the company’s long-term value creation.”
Authors said other data in the survey suggest participants see sustainability efforts as supporting business objectives rather than being in response to societal pressures: Just 26% said nongovernmental organizations, activists or media drove them to make sustainability pledges, the lowest-ranked reason in the survey.
Another sign that sustainability is becoming more integrated with all important functions within a company: 55% of companies say sustainability criteria come into play in key business decisions, including capital expenditures, research and development, new products and mergers and acquisitions.
The biggest hurdle companies face in implementing their sustainability strategies is the high level of investment needed. Asked to assess a range of obstacles, 70% of respondents say required investment is either a very significant or somewhat significant barrier.
“Sustainability as an investment theme continues to evolve towards more nuance and rigor as investors must confront competing priorities – such as climate and the social costs of high energy prices – and focus on ‘real” impact,’ said Melissa James, head of the Global Capital Markets ESG Center of Excellence.
“As a consequence, companies continue to engage on the topic of accessing capital to finance their sustainability goals and initiatives. As we approach deadlines for various climate commitments from corporates and investors, there will be a continued push for financing clean tech and facilitating the energy transition, resulting in a natural maturation of the market,” she said.
Climate change may be the biggest factor forcing companies to boost sustainability efforts: 23% of respondents say there is already an impact from climate change on their business models, on par with more traditional business risks such as supply chain instability and geopolitical conflict (both 23%), and technological change and the action of competitors (both 25%).
When respondents considered medium and long-term risks in addition to short-term risks, 92% expect climate change to impact their business model by 2050.
“There may yet be challenges in developing expertise and financing models, but corporate leaders view sustainable business practices as fueling the creation of value as well as the mitigation of risk,” Alsford said.
Read the full report: “Sustainable Signals: Understanding Corporates’ Sustainability Priorities and Challenges”
‘Knight in spiny armor’: could lobsters help save Florida’s dying corals?
The finding is one of the more bizarre conclusions of a three-year study by scientists from the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC), who are also warning it may already be too late for some species of coral to survive without significant human assistance.
Last summer’s record ocean heat further accelerated a 90% decline in healthy coral in the Florida Keys since the 1970s. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) confirmed last month that ongoing high temperatures meant the world was experiencing its fourth global bleaching event of all time, and second in 10 years.
The reef-dwelling lobsters, the researchers say, could act as “knights in spiny armor” as the fight continues to save reefs in various states of degradation from collapsing completely. Not only does the scent of their urine appear to scare off corallivorous snails and fireworms that like to munch on live coral, but the spiny spotted lobsters are partial to themselves eating any of the smaller creatures unaffected by the odor.
“Lobsters urinate quite frequently, it’s part of how they communicate with each other, and they’re social animals so they’ll seek out the odor of other lobsters and aggregate shelters together. Prey can smell that odor and avoid it,” said Casey Butler, associate research scientist and head of the lobster research program at FWC.
In places where nursery-grown coral was planted as part of restoration programs, Butler said, the lobsters had an equally important role in devouring the creatures that harm it.
“Those little nuggets of corals that are out-planted are tasty and as soon as you put them down, the snails and the worms go right for them,” she said.
“But lobsters are also great universal predators themselves, especially spotted spiny lobsters that live and forage directly on the reef their whole lives. It’s like eating off a buffet.”
The study, funded by a grant from the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, combined field and laboratory research. It also looked at how the “food web” around fragile coral reefs was changing by studying the gut contents of two species, the spotted spiny lobster, and its closest relative, the Caribbean spiny lobster, which leaves the reef at night to feed.
“We were interested in trying to understand if lobsters can work as some sort of bio-control of these coral predators when the corals are facing so much struggle in order to survive, and the other part of the question was how are food webs shifting?” Butler said.
“In the better-quality, or less-degraded reefs, the lobsters were eating things higher up on the food web, benthic [bottom dwelling] fish, mollusks, fireworm and even lionfish.
“At more degraded reefs, you see more diversified gut contents, they eat whatever happens to be available, things with lower trophic profiles, so lower in the food web, like worms, brittle stars, detritivores, things like that. So the whole coral reef food web is really shifting with this degradation as well.”
The study comes, as Butler acknowledges, during a particularly depressing time for coral reefs globally amid a worsening climate emergency. A succession of storm surges, cyclones and flooding have turned Australia’s Great Barrier Reef into a “coral graveyard”; and some 54% of ocean waters containing coral reefs worldwide have experienced heat stress high enough to cause bleaching, Noaa’s Reef Watch said last month.
In Florida, pillar coral has almost entirely disappeared, and other species will struggle to recover without robust and diverse replanting programs from land-based nurseries, alongside other protective measures, she said. And lobsters, she believes, can play at least a small part.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like a silver bullet. But if it was applied in a way that was thought out well, you could potentially use them alongside coral restoration because they’re eating things that are corallivores and things like that at the higher quality reefs,” she said.
Singapore's Temasek sees impact investing at tipping point
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's Temasek Holdings believes that impact investing has reached an inflection point, with the coronavirus pandemic highlighting deep social imbalances that have intensified the need for such forms of investments.
Such investments, made to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact, as well as financial returns, grew to $715 billion in 2019 from $502 billion a year earlier, the Global Impact Investing Network estimated in a survey.
This month, Temasek, one of the world's largest state investors, announced a $500 million allocation to Asia and Africa-focused Leapfrog Investments, in the single biggest commitment to an impact fund manager.
"Our ambition is to be a catalyst to accelerate the growth," Benoit Valentin, the firm's head of impact investing, told Reuters in an interview.
"I think that in five years from now, every single big private equity firm would have their own impact vehicle."
Leapfrog invests in financial services and healthcare in emerging markets. Two years ago, Temasek's philanthropic arm set up ABC World Asia, a private equity fund for such investments.
"We believe impact investing is at an inflection point," Valentin, who is based in London, added.
Temasek, which also plans to take a stake in Leapfrog, is in talks to commit money to other fund investors to boost its presence.
"We are in due diligence with two funds already," Valentin said, one focused on India while the other had a wider sweep. "We have others lined up for the following years."
Temasek is among a few large state investors making a big push in a category that has attracted buyout funds such as Blackstone, TPG and KKR.
Early entrants showed it was possible to generate "risk-adjusted PE-like returns, not necessarily 25% and above, but mid-teens- to 20s-plus- type returns," said Valentin.
"We are not seeing this as a dilution of our overall return journey," said the 20-year investment veteran, referring to the internal rate of return, a measure of actual profits.
It is vital to set clear benchmarks rigorously chosen in order to sustain growth, he added. Temasek is working with a third party to audit its impact investments and Leapfrog and ABC also had third-party audits.
"Eventually, I do believe that there will be some sort of retail money flowing," Valentin said.
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