As the urgency to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and net-zero emissions by 2050 intensifies, impact investing has emerged as a powerful and essential tool to help meet these targets. Indeed, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), which defines impact investments as “investments...
In recent years, shareholder proposals[1] on ESG topics have become increasingly prevalent and have garnered significant attention from researchers. Two 2024 reports analyzing ESG and anti-ESG shareholder proposals within the Russell 3000 index (including the 3,000 largest publicly traded companies in the USA) have evidenced this...
On July 17th, 2024, the FT has published an interesting documentary under the title ‘Who killed the ESG party’ that inquires which were the 4 main culprits that contributed to kill the ESG party. In the following we want to briefly analyze the ESG growth...
On July 17th, 2024, the FT has published an interesting documentary under the title ‘Who killed the ESG party’ that inquires which were the 4 main culprits that contributed to kill the ESG party. In the following we want to briefly analyze the ESG growth...
Deutsche Börse acquires leading proxy voting advisor ISS for €1.9 million. The rationale of the transaction relies on Deutsche Börse intention to become the future leading ESG player globally. SVI raises concerns about the lack of competition in the proxy voting advisory market, the increase in...
Lebanon’s economic downfall has had a devastating effect on the healthcare sector, which has been witnessing a steep shortage of medicines following the Banque du Liban’s decision to lift subsidies on medicines, amid shortage of foreign currency reserves in the country. Urgent measures are needed...
We continue our report on Lebanon. In our previous installment, we took a closer look at Lebanon’s banking sector and its underlying monetary system which has strong responsibility in the present financial crisis. Today Lebanon is one of the most indebted countries in the world,...
As a response to the fragmented environment of ESG reporting, the international community has begun taking its steps towards harmonization. After a joint vision has been shared by the five leading Framework and Standard-setting Institutions, also the Big Four Accounting Firms have recently disclosed a...
The plant-based meat alternatives market is on a continuous rise. VC investment in bio-engineered foods has rocketed in the past 10 years and the trend is likely to continue with investors coming after bioengineered food start-ups in droves. Environmentalists are now pointing fingers at the...
The second report of the Lebanon series by Christina Lawandos we publish today considers the role that Lebanon’s monetary system and banking sector play in the present crisis. With a debt to GDP ratio of 152%, Lebanon is the third most indebted country in the world after Japan and...
The IPO of Nongfu Spring, a bottled water brand in mainland China, broke the record of the subscription capital of HKEX on September 8, 2020: it was 1,147 times oversubscribed by more than 700 thousand investors. The listing made the owner of the brand, Zhong...
SVI start publishing today reports by Christina Lawandos on the current Lebanese situation from an ESG perspective. Christina is our contact in Lebanon, a local witness strongly engaged in sustainable topics. Unfortunately, what happened in Beirut has to do with very severe ESG topics: negligence,...
Alphabet has launched one of the largest sustainable bond offerings to be ever recorded, devoted to funding ongoing and new green and social justice-oriented projects. Sustainable bonds are not without risk of social washing and investor monitoring is much needed. The Covid-19 pandemic has boosted the offering of socially-related bonds,...
The modern slavery case at Boohoo shows the importance of investigating firms' ESG practices more deeply. The Manchester-based online fast-fashion retailer Boohoo has launched an independent review of its domestic supply chain after the Sunday Times published an investigation affirming that workers manufacturing its products at a...