Climate change – The importance of disclosure in emerging markets
When we joined as founding members of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative in 2020, we had already been measuring and reporting GHG metrics for our portfolios for a few years. However, we had been very much reliant on using third-party estimates. As of 2020, only 13% of our portfolio companies were disclosing scope 1 […]
Youth unemployment: is China really lying flat?
China’s unemployment rate for young people aged 16 to 24 hit record levels every month from April until June this year when it reached 21.3%, after which the government stopped publishing age-related unemployment data. A scholar from Peking University recently suggested this figure may even be underestimated as it does not account for the 16 […]
Food security in Emerging Markets: risk and reward
This article was first published in the Partner Content section of the Financial Times (FT.com). Developing countries account for three quarters of the world’s population, are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, already account for two thirds of global emissions, yet receive a small fraction of annual investment in climate transition. This represents a chronic misallocation […]
Igniting India’s SMEs
This article was first published in the Partner Content section of the Financial Times (FT.com). Is it fair to describe certain markets as ‘Emerging’ when they are not in any way converging with developed world living standards? Over the last decade, while China continued to power towards middle income status, many of the countries in the ‘Emerging […]
Where future growth lies, and why
This article was first published in the Partner Content section of the Financial Times (FT.com). 2023 was, of course, supposed to be the year that promised that a recovery in China and a buoyant India, facing off against a stuttering US (complete with weakening dollar) and inflation-ravaged Europe, would finally bring the ‘lost decade’ of emerging markets […]
IndiaMart: Digital development done right
Intuitively, digitalisation is a game-changer for catalysing accelerated, equitable development in emerging markets. And in numerous countries so far, digital versions of basic services have already proven critical for empowering entrepreneurs and consumers. Mobile money accounts are perhaps the classic example, with digitalisation enabling a sea change in availability of financial services. With near-zero marginal […]
Our impact measurement and management framework in practice: Bioceres Crop Solutions
In a previous Insights piece, we described recent updates to our impact measurement and management (IMM) framework. Here we illustrate some of those using the case study of Bioceres. Bioceres Crop Solutions (“Bioceres”) develops solutions to enhance crop productivity while mitigating adverse environmental impacts of farming. Products include biological agricultural inputs such as inoculants, which use […]
Impact Investing in Emerging Market Public Equities: What it is and what it isn’t
Back in 2018, we met a publicly listed business in India that makes affordable insect repellents that helped protect families from malaria for 2 US cents a night. During a demonstration in their R&D lab, we were struck by the huge positive social implications of this company’s profit-driven development of an effective product at such […]
Women in India: how to get excited by slow progress
by Rebecca Lewis, Co-CEO & Partner Over the last decade or so I have had the pleasure of frequently spending time with our India research team, led by Vatsal Mody in Mumbai, often conducting ‘household visits’, basically sitting in someone’s front room chatting to them about their lives, spending and aspirations. Whilst we have had […]
China: Current state of play
Partners Desmond, Gordon and Hugo were all back in China in June, covering a total of eight cities between them in a comprehensive check-up on the economic recovery. The chance to get off the beaten track of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen was also a welcome reminder of the depth of the opportunity in China, and […]