Certior Capital is highly committed to responsible business practices and good corporate governance. We take environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects fully into account within our own operations and use our influence to encourage our business partners across Europe to maintain the highest standards in their own activities.
“We are a European-focused firm with strong Finnish roots and this is reflected in our corporate culture and team ethos which is fundamentally transparent, honest and humble.”
We are a signatory to the PRI and fully recognise that ESG factors play a material role in determining risk and return and understand that incorporating ESG factors is an important part of our fiduciary duty to our clients and beneficiaries. Certior Capital is committed to offering our investors transparency about where and how their money is being invested and we undertake to actively play our part concerning major global issues such as climate change, pollution, fair working conditions, employee diversity, corruption and the use of aggressive tax mitigation strategies.
In 2021 Certior Capital became the first Finnish member of Initiative Climat International (iCI). In joining iCI, Certior benefits from being part of a formally endorsed, global and collaborative initiative to assess and limit private equity’s exposure to climate change risk. We fully recognize that climate change will have adverse effects on the global economy, which presents both risks and opportunities for investors. We will join forces to contribute to the objective of The Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well-below two degrees celsius and will actively engage with our portfolio companies and investment managers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to an overall improvement in sustainability performance.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a framework for addressing the world’s most urgent economic, social and environmental challenges. The SDGs were agreed upon by 193 countries in 2015 as a way to shape dialogue and action towards the 2030 Agenda and were organised into 17 goals on topics including poverty, hunger, health, education, climate change, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, environment and social justice. Certior Capital fully recognises that private equity and private credit investors are well-positioned to support the achievement of the SDGs as they are in a unique position to invest in and influence businesses to create long term positive change. In particular, we are in a position to help deliver important outcomes across key SDG themes including good health and well-being (goal 3), gender equality (goal 5), affordable and clean energy (goal 7), decent work and economic growth (goal 8), industry, innovation and infrastructure (goal 9), sustainable cities and communities (goal 11), responsible consumption and production (goal 12) and climate action (goal 13). Certior Capital actively seeks to integrate the SDGs into our investment process and ultimately to report how our investments impact the SDGs and the impact of portfolio companies on the SDGs.
EU Sustainable finance disclosure regulation (SFDR)
The EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (2019/2088, as amended, the “SFDR”) sets out certain transparency requirements for Certior Capital (as a registered alternative investment fund manager).
Transparency of Sustainability Risk Policies
Certior Capital integrates sustainability (or ESG) risks in its investment-decision making process through carrying out due diligence on ESG matters on new investment opportunities as well as through continuous portfolio monitoring.
In order to minimize ESG-related risks due to certain sector exposure or activities that run high reputational risk, we exclude certain industry sectors seen as incompatible with ESG values (including the production or trade of military weapons, tobacco or tobacco-related products and pornography).
Furthermore, as a part of its representation on the advisory boards of target funds, Certior Capital encourages fund managers to pay more attention to ESG matters and follows up on how managers have integrated ESG issues in their investment decision making process, thereby decreasing potential sustainability risks in the portfolio.
Transparency of Adverse Sustainability Impacts
At the present time Certior Capital does not formally consider the adverse impacts of its investment decisions on sustainability factors and so is unable to make disclosures of principal adverse impacts pursuant to the SFDR (and the related regulatory technical standards). This is principally due to the fact that the regulation is relatively new, and the target funds and investee companies in the existing portfolio of Certior Capital’s funds are not under any obligations to provide the relevant information. Accordingly, Certior Capital cannot guarantee that the relevant information can be obtained (given that Certior Capital is not in control of the underlying investee companies nor its investee funds).
Furthermore, as Certior Capital concentrates on emerging managers and concept funds, such fund managers may not be able to provide the relevant information in a timely manner. Consequently, for the time being, Certior Capital continues to observe developments in its portfolio in this respect and may start considering principal adverse impacts of its investment decisions, as and when the relevant information can be obtained.