Costs a barrier to ESG adoption, Dechert GP survey finds

On Wednesday morning, NPM braved the London rain to hear about law firm Dechert’s 2023 Global Private Equity Outlook – a survey of 100 GPs globally. A few interesting takeaways:

• EMEA and APAC-based GPs identified the added costs needed to identify and manage ESG risks and opportunities as the biggest barrier to greater adoption of ESG initiatives. For North American managers, it was a tie between the difficulty creating a standardised way to gather data and concerns over whether monitoring ESG metrics translates to better performance.
• EMEA GPs believe they are leading the way in C-suite diversity at portfolio level. Sixty percent of respondents from the region rated the diversity in their portfolio companies C-suites as good or excellent, compared with only 30 percent in APC and 38 percent in North America.
• North American GPs put more weight on governance KPIs when deciding to pursue a deal than other regions. EMEA GPs place greater weight on diversity metrics than managers from elsewhere.

Access the report here.