Real Asset IMPACT reposted this
Structuring Investments. Building Investment Funds. Assisting Insurers and Pension Funds. Navigating Sustainability & Impact.
A lot has already been shared and said about Bundesverband Alternative Investments e.V. (BAI)'s annual gathering of ESG professionals yesterday. It was again a very inspiring meeting with many experts from the industry - almost a class reunion rather than a conference. A few take-aways: ➡ Impact is not mainstream (yet) but it is steadily making its way into institutional investor allocations. However, not all of these investors start from the same place. Hence successful fundraising depends on finding the right tone with each investor - and being able to demonstrate the alignment between impact and value creation. Great insights from Dr. Fabian Söffge from Argos Wityu and Dr. Philipp Wagner from LGT Capital Partners in our morning panel. ➡ Hanging on every word in Susanne Schenker's keynote speech on the new EU Commission's plans to revamp the EU Sustainable Finance framework. A lot still up in the air but we will likely see clearer on the direction of travel in early 2025. Whether through an "omnibus" package of amendments or separately, simplification and alignment of the major regimes (CSRD, EU Taxonomy, SFDR and CS3D) will be high on the agenda. ➡ Great presentation by Michael Horvath and Sebastian Kreutel on how to deal with the lack of CSRD implementation in Germany - one of the many "fallouts" of the coalition break-up. "Keep calm and carry on" (as my British colleagues would say) is the best recommendation right now. A piece of good news amidst the turmoil: since there will be no assurance in Germany if CSRD is not implemented and BaFin has already announced to be pragmatic in the first reviews, companies can relax - but not too much to avoid loosing momentum! ➡ Special thanks to Severin Buchwald for diving deep into the concept of "Minimum Safeguards" in our joint presentation. A lot of legal and technical background which I couldn't have conveyed without his support from a practitioner's view. ➡ Finally, I am very proud and happy that the joint position paper on impact investing has been launched by BAI and Bundesinitiative Impact Investing yesterday (check the BAI homepage). Not only because I am one of the co-authors, but also because I am convinced this will be another pillar in building the bridge between traditional alternatives strategies and impact investing. Special thanks to Eric Prüßner who has been the driving force behind the paper and to our "think tank" Michael Bommer, Susanne Bregy, Sebastian Brinkmann, Janna Brokmann, Young-Jin Choi, FRSA (views are my own), Anna Dißmann, Julian Frede, Dr. Julian Hochscherf, Jörg Rhode and Barbara Treusch. Thank you to Michael Bommer and the entire BAI team for the great organization of the event. The Herbert Smith Freehills team (Annekathrin Hoffmann, LL.M., Simon Reulein and Jan Labusga) was proud to act as a sponsor and we have already marked Thursday, 27 November 2025 in our calendars for the next "class reunion"...