Has Environmental Investing Entered the Mainstream?

Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Author: Pr-inside.com

GLG Partners, Inc. (“GLG”) (NYSE: GLG), the U.S.-listed asset manager, has engaged Mercer’s investment consulting business, to examine if the perceived need to tackle the issues around climate change and other major environmental issues is resulting in a change in focus and approach for mainstream investing. The study will examine the trends and drivers in industry practice and contain insights from Mercer’s own research and consulting experience.

Pierre Lagrange, co-founder and senior Managing Director of GLG said.
“We believe that environmental liabilities are already changing the economics of some industries and will affect most industries’ returns over the next 10 years. Our view, which is supported by the McKinsey/Vattenfall report and work of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University¹, is that many of the necessary improvements can be realized with existing commercially available technologies, which raises the important question of how best to focus beyond the early VC, clean tech and other typical ‘SRI’ investments, to integrate environmental factors into profitable mainstream investing.”

Emma Hunt, the principal leading the project on behalf of Mercer said.

“Many corners of the investment sector are incorporating environmental issues into their research, analysis and investment decisions. This is evident in the plethora of new products on the market and the increasingly widespread claim that environmental factors are being incorporated into investment processes. But is this really entering the mainstream? By undertaking an in-depth look of the actual penetration of environmental issues in the investment sector, we believe that we will be able to provide some valuable insights for both asset owners and asset managers on the current state of play.”

The study will examine public equity products in the institutional marketplace with a focus on Western Europe and North America. The results will be made available in autumn 2009.



About Mercer:

Mercer is a leading global provider of consulting, outsourcing and investment services. Mercer works with clients to solve their most complex benefit and human capital issues, designing and helping manage health, retirement and other benefits. It is a leader in benefit outsourcing. Mercer’s investment services include investment consulting and multi-manager investment management. Mercer’s 18,000 employees are based in more than 40 countries. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., which lists its stock (ticker symbol: MMC) on the New York, Chicago and London stock exchanges. For more information, visit www.mercer.com : cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww ..



About GLG:

GLG is a U.S.-listed asset management company offering its base of long-standing prestigious clients a diverse range of alternative and traditional investment products and account management services. GLG’s focus is on preserving client’s capital and achieving consistent, superior absolute returns with low volatility and low correlations to both the equity and fixed income markets. Since its inception in 1995, GLG has built on the roots of its founders in the private wealth management industry to develop into one of the world’s largest and most recognized alternative investment managers with a growing presence in the traditional long-only investment product market. As of June 30, 2009, GLG managed net pro-forma AUM of $19.1 billion, adjusted for the acquisition of SGAM, which closed on April 3, 2009.

¹ Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies by S. Pacala and R. Socolow


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