Environmental
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which manages C$159bn (€126.3bn) for public and private pension and insurance plans, has announced a C$12.5m investment in a Montreal-based waste and recycling firm. It has made the investment in Enviro-Viridis Development Corporation, a 300-employee company which specialises in waste and recycling management.
China: the Guangzhou carbon emission rights trading exchange has been launched in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, according to a report in China Daily. The pilot will cover enterprises that emitted 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide or more a year in any of the years from 2011 to 2014, in nine industries including power generation, cement, steel, ceramics, petrochemical and textiles.
Renewable energy project developer Mainstream Renewable Power has signed a corporate loan facility for up to €60m with Australia’s Macquarie Group. Mainstream has also raised €16.8m from high net worth individuals and says it has the appetite to take in additional equity to further develop its business. This would include the massive Energy Bridge which is to export 5,000MW of wind power from Ireland to the UK from 2017. Announcement
Social
Lampe Asset Management GmbH, a subsidiary of Bankhaus Lampe KG which manages more than €6bn, has begun using Oekom Research’s corporate and country ratings. Lampe’s Managing Director Norbert Schulze Bornefeld said: “We are seeing growing interest, particularly among institutional investors, in taking sustainability criteria into account in their investments.” Oekom has also named convertible bond specialist Salm-Salm & Partner as a new client.
Index provider STOXX has announced the annual review of its Sustainability and Global ESG Leaders indices. The changes come into force on September 24. The lists of the companies that will be added and removed are available here and here. Governance
Governance research firm GMI Ratings has teamed up with environmental data provider Trucost. Under the strategic partnership, Trucost data will be integrated into the GMI Analyst research platform. It will enable GMI’s clients such as institutional investors, banks, insurers, auditors, regulators and corporations to incorporate a measure of environmental risk alongside traditional financial metrics. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The UK government introduced legislation on September 10 to Parliament to implement important changes to Money Laundering Regulations. It said the changes would reduce the regulatory burden of current rules but strengthen the overall anti-money laundering regime. Link
Institutional Shareholder Services is backing a new initiative to improve corporate board recruitment called BoardProspects, an online professional community. It enables two-way search and matching capabilities to fill positions on boards of directors and advisory boards. Boston-based BoardProspects’ advisory board includes LinkedIn co-founder Yan Pujante and Harvard Business School’s Misiek Piskorski. Other sponsors include exchange operator NASDAQ.
There was a 29.5% vote against a resolution on political donations at online gambling firm Betfair Group plc’s annual general meeting this week in London, believed to be one of the highest ever.
The €7.5bn SPH fund for Dutch doctors is standing by its investments in tobacco producers such as British American Tobacco (BAT), according to reports. IPE.com quoted the fund as saying it has outsourced its asset management to external managers, who have the discretion to invest in tobacco.
Royal Bank of Scotland is reportedly preparing for a £200-£300m settlement with regulators over the Libor rate-setting scandal. The Financial Times said the bank is in advanced negotiations over allegations that some of its traders sought to rig Libor for up to 10 years.
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