We gather developments and commentary in and around the ESG investment space.

UOB Venture Management, part of United Overseas Bank, has issued its disclosure statement on impact investing principles, saying that it is the first such organisation to do so in Singapore.

The Impact Principles were launched at the World Bank Group/International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings in April last year. They are designed to make impact investment more transparent, and build trust in adopting this way of putting money to work. Globally, the principles have more than 100 signatories.

“The need for impact investments is even more pressing now with the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacting low-income communities in Asia and pushing more people below the poverty line,” Seah Kian Wee, chief executive of UOBVM, said.

Impact investment is a term covering how money is deployed to bring about non-monetary results, such as reducing criminal re-offending rates, cleaning up damaged environments or tackling poverty, while at the same time also achieving a financial return. This area has grown alongside environmental, social and governance (ESG)-driven investment.

In 2015 UOBVM launched AIIF, a fund that aims to achieve impact and financial returns to institutional and accredited investors globally. It invests in high-growth companies from the education, healthcare and agriculture sectors in Southeast Asia and China. 

UOBVM has also obtained independent verification from Ernst & Young of the AIIF’s alignment with the Impact Principles.

The second AIIF is now open for subscriptions. It has a target fund size range of $100 million and is expected to make equity investments of about $1 million to $15 million each.

UBS Wealth Management
The world’s largest wealth manager UBS has announced that it is making sustainable investment its preferred solution for private client investing globally. UBS already manages $488 billion in the sustainable investing space.

The Swiss manager says that it is the first major global financial institution to go all-in on recommending sustainable asset allocation, which the pandemic has thrown more weight behind. The idea that a 100 per cent sustainable portfolio can deliver similar or better returns than traditional investment portfolios has largely proven the case in market performance of SRI over the past six months.

“The shift in preferences towards sustainable products and services is only just beginning," said Iqbal Khan, co-president of UBS Global Wealth Management. “We believe sustainable investments will prove to be one of the most exciting and durable opportunities for private clients in the years and decades ahead.”

The group's chief investment officer Mark Haefele said moving to a well-designed sustainable portfolio will "help clients weather the kind of volatility that we expect to persist" through much of the next decade.