Newsletter: Macquarie vet raises; NYSCRF’s sustainable $20bn; Impact Investor Forum kicks off

Green by name

Bill Green, a veteran of Macquarie’s infrastructure group, has raised around a quarter of the $1 billion target for his new shop’s debut fund. The Climate Adaptive Infrastructure Fund aims to build a “diversified portfolio of low-carbon infrastructure assets” targeting mid-teen net returns, a market source told New Private Markets. Jordan Stutts has the scoop.

The firm uses a screening process for potential investments that weighs the physical risk and political and regulatory standing of whether an asset is well-suited for a greener and climate-friendly economy. Its first two investments are in hydroelectric power and utility-scale solar.

Investor profile

Want to work with the $250 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund? The pension has funnelled $20 billion of its capital into the creation of a Sustainable Investments and Climate Solutions portfolio. Andrew Siwo, who oversees that pool of capital, took time out to talk us through the pension’s priorities, progress and what it looks for in a general partner.

Siwo will be appearing alongside speakers from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, APG, PGGM and BlueOrchard to discuss the mainstreaming of impact into institutional investment at the Impact Investor Forum.

LPs on GP gender issues

“We can state our expectations, and if they don’t meet our expectations, we can make decisions about whether it’s still worth investing with these people further down the line,” says Denise Le Gal, chair of the Brunel Pension Partnership. Le Gal was participating in last week’s virtual Women in Private Markets Networking Day. Among the agenda items was progress on gender diversity among GPs. The conclusion? That LPs can and should be voting with their feet if they don’t like what they see, but for now they seem happy to give GPs a pass.

Another day, another ESG-linked credit facility

Nordic Capital has joined the ESG-linked credit facility revolution. Here is what we know from the European private equity firm’s announcement this morning:

• It is a revolving facility for its most recent vehicle, the €6 billion Fund X.
• The facility “incentivises strong performance” against a set of KPIs covering ESG areas “both within Nordic Capital’s own organisation and its portfolio companies”.
• KPIs are not detailed in the release, but the firm says they cover such areas as carbon footprint, gender equality at board level and  governance.
• If Nordic fails to achieve “a top tier UN PRI scoring on ESG performance” in its annual PRI process, the cost of the facility will increase.

Nordic says: “The targets have been calibrated to demonstrate and encourage an ambitious and industry-leading approach to sustainability in portfolio companies, directly addressing important areas that impact the world we live in.”

Listen to editors from PEI Media titles discuss the advent of ESG-linked fund finance and the questions these facilities raise.

Hill to Adams Street

Private markets firm Adams Street Partners has appointed Yohan Hill as ESG and responsible investing director and VP. Hill will be based in London and will lead an ESG committee of 10 other partners and principals. Hill was previously an ESG professional at S&P Global’s Trucost and Frontier Global Partners. Press release here.