Impact

Generating long-term, meaningful impact is only possible if we transform markets, financial institutions and end-investee companies. 

These are our three dimensions of impact investing:

Why are 100% of our investments in emerging markets?

Because the future of emerging markets is our shared future.

In these markets, you will find:

• 85% of the planet’s population.
• Businesses where most of the goods we consume are made.
• The centre of the climate crisis and rising inequality.
• The vast majority of the world’s biodiversity and natural resources.

As these economies grow, we must provide the necessary public and private capital and expertise to ensure they develop sustainably.

Impact in our focus geographies is critical for the future of our planet and the businesses and markets set to drive global growth.

Supporting the energy transition
After decades of investment, many of the most lucrative climate change opportunities in developed markets have already been activated. Emerging markets are experiencing the steepest part of the growth curve and the impact achievable in these regions is significant.

Strengthening our biodiversity
More than half of global GDP is either moderately or highly dependent on the natural world. We conserve some of the world’s most biodiverse regions by limiting the harm caused by deforestation and agricultural production.

Fostering sustainable business practises
Many emerging markets rely heavily on sectors primed for modernisation. These sectors will thrive if sustainable pathways to modernisation are highlighted, demystified and funded.

Fostering financial inclusion
In many emerging markets, there are too many obstacles to obtaining finance, especially for women entrepreneurs and growing businesses. Where we see a deficit in financial inclusion, we finance loans to companies and build capacity.

This separately funded service allows us to create meaningful impact across our three dimensions: markets, financial institutions and businesses.

How do we achieve this?

We provide consultancy and training, and knowledge-sharing events to promote high impact standards and generate interest in sustainable financing. We also help financial institutions structure sustainable products, and increase their impact and outreach potential. Lastly, we conduct research to enhance our impact and investment strategies.

Our impact management system helps us enhance the impact we make

When we invest via financial institutions, we use our impact scoring tool to ensure we can meet our impact targets. We will only invest if the end investees meet our return and impact criteria, as well as key environmental and social requirements.

Following investment, progress is monitored and assessed, drawing on a range of data sources.

The system also allows us to identify opportunities to further enhance performance through, for example, our capacity building efforts. 

First-class measurement and management make us a BlueMark Practice Leader

Our impact management practices are closely aligned with industry standards, particularly the Operating Principles for Impact Management, which we signed in 2019. 

In 2023, we underwent the most recent independent verification by BlueMark. Our impact management system ranked ‘advanced’ (the highest ranking possible) against the Principles and current industry best practice.

We have received the highest score in all eight dimensions of the Principles and have been designated as a ‘Practice leader’ by BlueMark for the third year in a row. 

Read our Disclosure Statement here.

Find us on BlueMark’s Practice Leaderboard here.

Impact can only be sustainable if we manage and mitigate possible negative impacts. We prioritise avoiding, minimising and mitigating environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks through comprehensive ESG management systems and relevant procedures. 

We identify ESG risks and assess the capacity and commitment of end investees to address and mitigate these. Following investment, we monitor the investee's ESG performance regularly.