Who took home sustainability awards across PEI Group’s titles?

This year New Private Markets revealed the winners of its first annual awards. Every March, NPM‘s affiliate titles also announce their annual award winners across infrastructure, private equity, private debt and real estate, each with their own sustainability categories. Here is a round-up of winners from our affiliates.

Infrastructure

EQT bagged Infrastructure Investor‘s Sustainable Investor of the Year award ahead of Actis and Vauban Infrastructure Partners. Writes Infrastructure Investor:

EQT further bolstered its sustainability credentials in 2023, with the appointment of Francesco Starace as partner. As chief executive of Enel, Starace helped transform the company into one of the world’s largest renewable energy producers. EQT also published net-zero guidelines, outlining firm-wide targets and actions to achieve net zero by 2040, as well as rolling out net-zero training for all investment professionals to improve the firm’s carbon literacy. In addition, EQT supported eight portfolio companies in setting validated science-based targets with another four awaiting SBTi validation of their targets.

To read more on EQT and other infra awards winners visit Infrastructure Investor.

Private debt

Private Debt Investor has four responsible investment awards: three regional winners and one global champion. Blackrock was the biggest winner, taking home both the global and European gongs.

Global Responsible Investor of the Year and Europe Responsible Investor of the Year: Blackrock

BlackRock has continued to be a leader in sustainability-linked loan terms, included in 65 percent of deals in its European direct lending strategy. In infrastructure debt, the firm invested in the largest sustainability-linked loan in the data centre industry globally – the first to combine carbon, energy and water usage effectiveness as KPIs and the first in the sector to include a gender pay equity KPI. During the year, the firm hired a head of borrower engagement to support and provide resources to borrowers to progress climate transition-related goals.

Americas Responsible Investor of the Year: Ares Management

With its first-ever Scope 3 financed emissions disclosure published in July 2023 and its co-founding of DE&I organisation AltFinance, Ares evidenced continuing ESG and diversity progress in the past year. Particularly eye-catching was the close of the latest Pathfinder fund with a pledge to donate at least 5-10 percent of carried interest profits to global health and educational charities. With ESG/sustainability reporting and transparency a hot topic, Ares launched an enhanced ESG data programme.

Asia-Pacific Responsible Investor of the Year: Keppel Credit

Investments made from Keppel Credit’s second fund in 2023 included its fourth investment in social infrastructure and its sixth in renewable energy – the latter being the firm’s single-largest sector exposure. Also in 2023, the firm, formerly known as Pierfront Capital, became a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, published the second edition of its annual ESG Report and set up a dedicated ESG committee to oversee its growing number of sustainability initiatives. The firm claims to have improved its ESG framework and has started reporting certain ESG metrics at the fund manager level.

Find the full list of Private Debt Investor award winners here.

Private equity

TPG scooped affiliate title Private Equity International‘s Impact Investment Firm of the Year ahead of Bain Capital and KKR. Says PEI:

With $18 billion in AUM across its various impact funds, TPG boasts one of the largest private markets impact investing platforms in the world – a fact that has led to it winning this award three years in a row and four years overall. The firm recently held the final close for its Rise Fund III on $2.7 billion, a 24 percent increase on its predecessor. TPG’s Rise platform has averted approximately 111.5 million metric tonnes of CO2, provided 40.6 million lower-income households with banking services and conserved six million hectares of forests.

Read more about Private Equity International‘s award winners here.

Real estate

Affiliate title PERE recognises four firms in the ESG Firm of the Year category: three regional standouts and one global champion. Find the full list here.

• Global: Hines
• North America: Harrison Street
• Europe: CBRE Investment Management
• Asia-Pacific: GLP Capital Partners

Real Estate Capital Europe has two awards for sustainability-related debt activity. Read the other winners here.

• Sustainable Finance Provider of the Year: Lloyds Banking Group
• Sustainable Financing Deal of the Year: Aviva Investors (lender), Urban Logistics REIT (borrower) for UK logistics refinancing