AnaCap’s commitment to ESG and responsible investing
Responsible investing represents an integral part of our business and our culture. We believe that a robust analysis of, and concrete measures to implement, ESG matters is fundamental to understanding the long-term sustainability of our portfolio companies, their profitability and overall return on investment.
Our philosophy is designed to provide a flexible framework, while supporting a consistent approach to ESG considerations through our firm, funds and portfolio companies. Our approach allows a bespoke implementation of ESG factors across different investments.
Our objective is to continually invest in a responsible way, integrating relevant ESG risks and factors throughout the whole investment process: from pre-investment due diligence, through each investment’s life and through to exit.
Our ESG policy sets out our detailed approach to the integration of sustainability related risks in the investment decision making process throughout this life-cycle, in compliance with the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). Since February 2019, we have been signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI).
AnaCap was recognized as one of the top private equity firms on ESG reporting and transparency, scoring in the top 10 among 155 Private Equity firms in the Orbis Advisory report in 2022.
Our continuous approach to ESG factors throughout the investment process
We believe ESG considerations are relevant and important at each stage of our investment cycle.
Our pre-investment diligence process enables us to identify potential ESG issues early on, allowing the adoption of early remediation action or potentially outright rejection of an opportunity. Our Investment Recommendation Committee may ultimately refuse to provide support for a transaction based on ESG considerations.
Throughout the life of an investment, our Value Creation team will work with management teams and expert advisers as needed to design and implement a 120-day plan for each portfolio company, including an ESG strategy. AnaCap requires companies to report annually in accordance with its established ESG reporting framework and with external third-party benchmarking.
We believe that the ESG related improvements achieved during our period of ownership are not only of benefit to the workforce and the wider community, but that they ultimately maximise value at exit, and put our portfolio companies in a strong position to continue the next stage of their journey.
If you would like to read more about our ESG commitments, please see our ESG policy here
Strengthening our commitments
External ESG consultants, Ecovadis, conduct ESG assessments on AnaCap and each of our portfolio companies on an annual basis. We are proud to say that we were all awarded a medal in the 2022 review. AnaCap was awarded a Gold Medal.
Tackling climate change
Although our area of investment does not directly affect climate change, we acknowledge that we cannot consider ourselves responsible investors if we are not taking into consideration the impacts of climate change within our business and as they relate to our portfolio companies.
AnaCap has a sustainable procurement policy and aims to follow and to promote good sustainability practice, reduce environmental impacts of all activities and assist its portfolio companies to do the same. For this purpose, we have taken concrete measures for the reduction of energy consumption of our lighting systems, have implemented measures to recycle paper and carton waste, and also adopted measures to recycle our IT equipment.
We will continue to identify and implement measures aimed at reducing our overall carbon footprint.
Modern Slavery
We would never invest in a company which we knew to be linked, either directly or indirectly, with any form of modern slavery and we have conviction that no modern slavery or human trafficking is, or will, be financed by AnaCap.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
AnaCap provides equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment. No employee will be discriminated against in hiring or employment because of their race, gender, national origin, background, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age or beliefs. AnaCap categorically rejects racism and all other forms of discrimination.
We are proud of the existing diversity within the firm. At AnaCap, almost half of our workforce speaks English as a second language and more than half of our workforce identifies as having a racial or ethnic identity other than White British.
But we recognise that we can do more. Our diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) strategy aims to increase diversity further and challenge ourselves to cultivate a more equitable and inclusive workplace. We believe that diverse groups make better decisions, and better decisions result in better performance.
The three pillars of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are important to our strategy. AnaCap understands that having staff with varied backgrounds, perspectives and experiences strengthens our team and improves our investment perspective. It helps to foster a culture of equity and inclusion and ensures that we are as thorough, analytical and creative as possible in our approach to new opportunities.
We are particularly proud of our partnership with Sponsors for Educational Opportunity London (SEO), via which we offer an internship each summer, where university students from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds spend time in all parts of the firm, giving them access they may not otherwise have to the industry.
AnaCap is committed to giving back to the community. AnaCap supports For Kids’ Sake International (FKSI), an international fundraising project that provides helps children, schools and orphanages in Bangladesh. FKSI also strives to create financial sustainability by supporting local cottage industries and provides project managers with on-site leadership training.