As we get used to working remotely, this week, we reached out to the AP funds 1, 2, 3 and 4 to find out how their sustainability efforts contributed to the strong financial performance they announced for 2019, as they reported a 17.6% average return. Magdalena Håkansson, Ulrika Danielson, Anne-Charlotte Hormgard and Tobias Fransson share the progress they made recently. At the beginning of the week, AP1 coincidentally decided to divest from fossil fuel.
We also “met” with Anna Lundén, Managing Director, Equity Portfolio Manager at Wellington Management and talked about how ESG can be used effectively when investing in small caps. And we took the opportunity to catch up with Rebeca Coriat who just joined Lombard Odier as Head of Stewardship.
Meanwhile, we found that the three Swedish institutions Alecta, Länsförsäkringar and Folksam gobbled up a SEK3 billion “COVID 19 bond”, a social bond issued by the IFC to provide financial support and loans to companies that are strongly adversely affected by the spread and turmoil linked to the virus outbreak. Still in the sustainable bond space, Icelandic electricity generator Landsvirkjun issued US$80 million in SDG-linked bonds, linked to the company’s carbon sequestration targets.
While the coronavirus destabilises the economy and smaller companies in particular, we took a closer look at the measures taken by Impossible Foods to cushion a demand slowdown with piles of cash.
Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash