Sustainable funds improved by SDR

This week we featured the survey from The Investment Association which found that the majority of investment firms believe Sustainability Disclosure Requirements have improved sustainable funds. Almost all (91 per cent) surveyed firms adopting an SDR label have updated the labelled fund’s investment policy or strategy to be more transparent on the fund’s sustainability approach, and 4 in 5 (83 per cent) have added a sustainability investment objective for at least one fund.

However, The Investment Association writes that the FCA authorisation process has not been without challenges, with almost half (49 per cent) of firms having at least one fund that they considered adopting a label for but later decided against it, with a third (32 per cent) making this decision after going through the FCA authorisation process.

The survey also found that SDR gives investors a helping hand, but firms are unconvinced it will result in more capital being driven into sustainable funds.

These volatile markets are driving investors to seek out returns from other sectors and TIME Investments detailed seven UK infrastructure sectors to watch this week. GP Surgeries; Data Centres; Solar farms; Wind farms; Energy storage; Communication towers and Public/Private partnerships feature.

Our In My Opinion comes from William Edwards of S&P Global Ratings who writes about the new trend for private equity to draw on continuation funds to tackle the liquidity drought. S&P Global Ratings expects private equity will continue to ramp up its use of continuation funds to increase the number of exits. In combination with existing and novel debt financing strategies – for example, general partner (GP) financing and dual-pledge financing – these vehicles can unlock liquidity for GPs and limited partners (LPs), which rejuvenates fund lifecycles for manager.

I will be hosting a couple of ETF panels at this year’s IMPower Fund Forum in June. For a 10 per cent discount to attend. use this link and code: FKN3972ETFX. I hope to see you there.

Beverly Chandler, Managing Editor, Institutional Asset Manager

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