Citywire Selector Podcast

Hendrik-Jan Boer, head of sustainable investments equity at NNIP, explains what the Wirecard situation means for ESG investing, why it benefits salmon growers to have sustainability reports and how NNIP’s own sustainability investments have evolved over the last 20 years.

In a special episode of EM Insider, Raphael Kassin is on the ground in Rio de Janeiro as it becomes a global focal point for the Covid-19 outbreak and President Bolsonaro fights for power. In this episode, Raphael tells Chris Sloley why Brazil is becoming increasingly uninvestable. Also in this episode, we look at how Argentina has delayed its debt restructuring but potentially alienated all future international investors in the process, as well as hearing how China has quietly emerged as a strong place to buy corporate debt.

In this episode of our ESG-focused podcast, we talk to Lisa Beauvilain from Impax AM about the threat that corporate lobbying poses to green investors, why you might need to consider ‘killing’ your ESG darlings and how asset managers can aid the fight against racism.

The Covid-19 crisis has caused many headaches for asset management chiefs, but you need to focus on plans being delayed rather than destroyed, according to Artisan Partners’ chief executive officer, Eric Colson. In this latest episode of Future Thinking, Colson reveals how his multi-disciplined firm has responded to the market challenges, why his autonomous sub-group approach can thrive in the future and how his focus on company culture emboldens those willing to ‘misbehave’ when it comes to investment thinking.

The road ahead for real assets can be hugely positive but more work needs to be done to better educate investors from the outset, according to Gresham House’s chief executive officer, Tony Dalwood. In this latest episode of Future Thinking, Dalwood talks about how he reshaped Gresham House’s real assets efforts, what the future could be for real assets and what could shape the real assets agenda over the next decade.

Digital strategies have raced to the top of investment firms’ agendas, while companies and countries have both begun to realise that whoever has access to the greatest amount of data will ultimately win the growing cold war around tech. The latest Future Thinking podcast welcomes GAM’s Amanda Lyons, who works across several technology funds at the Swiss group. Also in this discussion, Lyons talks about the reality of not being to operate in a tech-free world and why remote working will become permanent.

Nordea Asset Management’s Eric Pedersen only started his role as head of responsible investments at the end of last year, but he already has his hands full. He spoke to us about the EU’s forthcoming ESG taxonomy and how his team is getting ready for its implementation. We also discussed whether boutique asset managers will be swept by an ESG reporting tsunami, and he revealed his proudest achievement when it comes to responsible investing.

5G is the future – but what is it really? There are few issues that feature more prominently in discussions around technology and communication than this next level of telecommunications. So, who better to speak to than YT Boon, a chipmaker-turned-fund-manager running a 5G-focused fund at Neuberger Berman? This conversation covers the whole gamut, from the onset of the Internet of Things to the security and health concerns that have dogged the development of a system that could revolutionise the way in which technology interconnects. In this discussion, Hong Kong-based Boon looks at what is ‘mission critical’ in the 5G story.

Pictures of clear skies and clean air are great for short-term indications of how we can improve the environment but the reality is that Covid-19 has not meaningfully staved off the negative impacts of climate change in any meaningful way. In the latest episode of Future Thinking, Ben McEwen, climate investment analyst at Sarasin & Partners, discusses his unique role, the importance of education and what really has to happen to ensure meaningful climate change abatement starts to take hold.

There is one emerging market which is proposing such strange measures that it might as well put a dome around itself and cut itself off from the rest of the world. That’s according to our EM Insider, Raphael Kassin. In the latest episode of our deep dive into developing world debt, Raphael talks Citywire Selector’s editor Chris Sloley through a wide array of market challenges and problems coming to the fore in the emerging markets over the past fortnight.