Impact Investments Deliver Key Financial and Impact Goals
9 June 2017 at 4:52 pm
A global report card on impact investing has revealed glowing results for investors.
The Annual Impact Investor Survey Report, released in May, revealed 91 per cent of respondents said their investments had either met or exceeded their expectations for financial performance and 98 per cent had met or exceeded their expectations for impact.
The report, by Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), surveyed 209 global investors managing USD $114 billion (A$151 billion) in assets.
GIIN co-founder and CEO Amit Bouri said the results from the annual survey, now in its seventh year, were encouraging.
“At the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), we are often encouraged by the survey findings, pleased to see indications that the market will realise the potential we envisioned for it years ago. This year, once again, the data attest to the industry’s momentum,” Bouri said.
“Investors continue to be overwhelmingly satisfied with the performance of their investments – both in terms of financial return and the impact they generate.”
The survey found the top sectors attracting impact investors globally were housing, energy and microfinance.
When deciding where to invest half of respondents targeted both a social and environmental impact objective, while 41 per cent primarily targeted social impact objectives and only 9 per cent primarily targeted environmental impact objectives.
The report found one-fifth of impact investors were tracking their investments against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and an additional third of respondents planned to do so.
Bouri said the annual survey, aimed to explore the “hard questions” about the market’s development and would examine where impact investing had fallen short of expectations and where more innovation and solutions were needed.
More than half of respondents said the lack of appropriate capital across the risk/return spectrum was either “a very significant’’ or “significant challenge.”
The report also found that a lack of exit options remained “problematic” in the eyes of many investors.
