Experts Identify Impact Investment That Balances Reputation and Returns
Does social responsibility matter? How to balance profitability and social good? What is the right path to cross the threshold of the impact investment space?
These are some of the vital, age-old questions that will be answered by renowned ESG investment experts at the long-awaited session that will be hosted by the Annual Investment Meeting 2022 on March 29th, 2022 at Dubai Exhibition Centre, EXPO 2020 Dubai, under the title of “ESG Investment Discussion - Entering the Impact Investment Space; Identifying the Right Mix of Impact and Return”.
So, what will the discussion at this high-profile gathering revolve around?
Impact VS Return | Stats Count!
At the AIM 2022 FDI & FPI Pillar Session, the panelists will probably start by underscoring Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing as the non-financial factors that investors are increasingly applying as part of their analysis process to identify material risks and growth opportunities.
They will also shed light upon the extent to which Impact investment is currently attracting a wide variety of investors, both individual and institutional - from fund managers to development finance institutions, diversified financial institutions/banks, private foundations, pension funds & insurance companies, family offices, individual investors, NGOs, and religious institutions.
Also, the session’s renowned speakers will be demonstrating how many businesses all over the world are presently leveraging the Impact Investment strategy to reduce some of the negative consequences of traditional business activities and, thereby, create a positive social or environmental impact while also generating financial returns.
To underline this trend, the panelists will most likely cite a number of enlightening statistics, including the data from Refinitiv revealing that in 2020, the issuance of sustainability reached a record USD 554.3 billion, and the stats of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), which disclose that in 2020, the impact investing market reached roughly USD 715 billion in assets under management - in addition to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimate that has raised this figure to USD 2.1 trillion.
There’re, also, the informative fact that more than 88% of impact investors reported that their investments had met or exceeded their expectations as well as the fact that the median impact fund realized a 6.4% return, compared to 7.4% from non-impact funds.
The AIM 2022 FDI & FPI Pillar Session
The AIM 2022 FDI & FPI Pillar Session’s panelists are Zainab Kufaishi, Head of Middle East & Africa and Senior Executive Officer, Invesco, Vladimir Potapov, Chief Executive Officer, VTB Capital Investments & Senior Vice President, VTB Bank, and Ayman Soliman, Chief Executive Officer, The Sovereign Fund of Egypt.
The session speakers will provide a wide range of insights into what the future holds for Impact Investing. They will explain, for example, that as wealth transfers between generations, with Millennials growing their wealth through earnings and inheritance, the momentum behind impact investing will continue to grow as part of the investing landscape.
What’s more, the panelists will undoubtedly draw attention to the increasing focus on broader economic and social impacts – such as job creation, health & educational outcomes, access to finance, skills training, telecommunication and broadband access, among others.
Now that the once-niche domain of impact investment has now become mainstream, is it time for you to brace for impact?
