Research

in this issue

Articles

Beyond Standards: Integrating Responsible Investment into Your Portfolio

The Opportunity and Challenge of Private Equity in Vietnam: Mekong Capital’s Experience

Inside Perspectives: An Interview with the IFC Asset Management Company (IFC AMC) Team

Industry Data

EMPEA Industry Statistics

Funds Launched & Closed

EM PE Performance

Notable Exits & IPOs

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Viewpoint from EMPEA President and ceo sarah alexander

Continuing developments on the regulatory front have thrown into even greater relief the need for our industry to measure and communicate private equity’s impact on companies and the communities in which they operate.

PE, VC and all their close cousins will continue to be misunderstood until our industry builds a body of evidence to demonstrate how private capital helps build businesses—small and large. Until we do so, we will be fighting an uphill battle to get regulation right and expectations in line with what PE can realistically deliver.

Telling the impact story needs to start at the ground level, and this Review provides multiple examples of how firms are breaking new ground to incorporate impact analysis (environmental, social) into their investment, due diligence and active portfolio management processes in ways that not only benefit their firms, but also serve as models and innovative approaches for the industry as a whole.

We tell the story of how both KKR and The Carlyle Group, for example, have teamed up with the U.S.-based Environmental Defense Fund to create new models for portfolio enhancement and due diligence screening. We also discuss IFC’s new ES Toolkit for private equity investors. Each of these initiatives is designed to yield reportable results for the industry at large.

We also share the experience of Vietnamese GP Mekong Capital, whose efforts to understand and improve portfolio performance led to an organizational transformation and a new value creation framework that has since been documented in a Harvard Business School case study. And our profile of the IFC Asset Management Company, which has attracted significant new LPs into the EM PE asset class, demonstrates the power of having a partner such as IFC, bringing not only a strong track record with ESG issues but also good financial returns.

EMPEA, too, is increasing its efforts to help tell the impact story. This issue features the first installment of our new PE Impact Case Study Series. Debuting here with ECP’s Algerian insurer GAM, our Impact Series demonstrates in very real and specific terms the economic benefits of private equity investment.

These and related issues will be top of the agenda as we gather once again in London in November. I look forward to seeing you there.