A&P’s ESG press review – December 2023

Asset Management, Private Equity, Real Estate Investment, and Infrastructure Actors: Explore our ESG press review! Discover our monthly selection of 4 news items!

Euronext Provides Free Access to ESG Indicators for Numerous Listed Companies

Euronext now provides access to around thirty ESG indicators for the 1900 listed companies across its various markets in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, Lisbon, Dublin, and Oslo. This marks the first time a stock exchange operator offers such a service (article). The data currently available covers the years 2020, 2021, and 2022, extracted from the listed companies’ annual reports. However, these companies can further enrich their profiles by adding presentations of their strategies, documents, and ESG ratings. Over a third of the CAC 40 companies have already completed their profiles on Euronext’s website. The operator aims to become a major source of ESG data in the years to come. How to access this data? Simply visit the profile of a listed company, then click on the “ESG” tab.

A Study Shows How ESG Has Become Central in M&A Operations

In recent years, negotiations in the M&A sector, and in the broader Private Equity domain, now almost systematically include the consideration of ESG criteria. To analyze this new practice in more detail, Option Finance and PwC, in collaboration with Arfa, surveyed decision-makers from 123 companies involved in the subject. The result: over 75% of respondents attach “very” or “fairly” high importance to ESG criteria. Moreover, they would be willing to withdraw from an investment project based on ESG criteria, or even divest from a project already funded (article).

France Presents its Strategy to Phase Out Fossil Fuels by 2050

The French government has published its strategy to phase out fossil fuels by 2050. The main axes include:

• Reducing energy consumption through housing renovation, phasing out oil-fired boilers, electrifying transport, and energy efficiency. The objective is to reduce consumption by 40 to 50% by 2050 compared to 2021 and by 30% by 2030 compared to 2012.
• Accelerating the development of renewable energies, by doubling the deployment rate of photovoltaics, biogas, and district heating by 2030, and quadrupling that of geothermal energy. Offshore wind will also be encouraged.
• Strengthening nuclear power by extending the lifespan of existing reactors and building six new reactors (EPR2) between 2035 and 2042. Additional reactors could also be built (article).

ISR Label Overhaul: Around 30% of Funds Will Be Affected by Fossil Fuel Exclusion

On November 7, Bruno Le Maire and the ISR Label governance jointly announced the details of the label overhaul planned since March 2021 (article). Starting from March 1, 2024, to obtain the ISR label, funds must now exclude any investment in companies exploiting fossil fuels, including TotalEnergies, Neste, GTT, Eni, Technip Energies, Repsol, Galp Energia, BP, Shell, or Equinor. According to various estimates (Reclaim Finance and Morningstar), around 30% of the 1174 funds currently benefiting from the ISR label are invested in these companies (article). According to government announcements, the management companies concerned will have one year, from the entry into force of the new version of the label, to adjust the composition of their portfolios.

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