Date: Thursday 15 October | Location: Online Webinar | Time: 14:00 – 15:30 (BST UTC+1)

Co-host: Eversheds Sutherland

The Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) theme is big news and is dominating global headlines as part of the wider issue of sustainability. A broad range of events have recently combined as the world lurches from one crisis to another with a wide range of impacts from severe financial to severe societal ones.

The spotlight on ESG raises the question: ‘How should firms respond to protect and adapt their businesses?’ This webinar conders the following as a useful discussion framework to help develop an enterprise strategy around the incorporation of ESG into a firm’s business models.

The webinar will:

Show me the evidence that ESG is here to stay

• Policy Momentum: what have Governments, Academicians and Standard Boards done?
• Early Movers: is it just Banks, Asset Managers, Insurers, Oil Majors, Miners
• Spectrum: it’s easy to identify good & bad, but how to deal with everything in between?
• Scope: is it just ESG or is it also Climate Risk and other Sustainability themes?
• Software & Services: who is entering the toolkit/services/consulting market for ESG?

Show me the impact on business practices

• Use of Funds: will these become more prescriptive and hence restrictive?
• Lenders & Investors: are there early indications of shifting trends in lending & investment criteria, including full look-through?
• Mandatory Disclosure: will regulation force me to be transparent?
• Operating Model: how will I need to adapt or change my operations?
• Private Lenders: can I shift from Public to Private lenders and avoid scrutiny & cost?

Show me the impact on my industry, my lines of business & my funding

• Competitors: what are they doing across the spectrum from leaders to laggards?
• Lines of Business: are they future-proof, just viable, for disposal, for closure or pivotable?
• Access to Funding: which pools of funds are shrinking/growing?
• Credit Spreads: what are the trends for rollover, refinancing, new money?
• Equity Premium: what are the barriers for perpetual funds and debt/equity ratios?

Speakers:

Johnny Mattimore has over 30 years’ experience in the financial markets having graduated in mathematics from the University of Bristol in 1988 and then trained as a markets specialist in sovereign & political risk, securities risk and economics. He has specialised in raising and managing funds, and running risk across developed and emerging markets, including during various crises from the 1980s emerging debt crises to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

His breadth of financial services experience includes banking, wealth management, asset management, hedge funds, private equity, clearers and exchanges. In recent years, this has extended to the application of blockchain/DLT technology to digital transactions and digital market infrastructure for financial services, commodities and supply chain management across all industry sectors.

Since 2012, he has been acting as an independent consultant, leadership executive and investor. He advises at C-level & MD-level and has implemented solutions for a wide range of business problems. Across all of these activities, digitisation of businesses and the adoption of new technology have been central to the solutions.

Michelle T Davies, International Head of Clean Energy and Sustainability, Eversheds Sutherland
Michelle set up the International Clean Energy and Sustainability Group 18 years ago which has advised on over 50GW of clean energy projects. Michelle is a partner in the firm’s corporate department and is International Head of the Clean Energy and Sustainability Group. Michelle is actively involved in the clean energy sector both in the UK and globally. She advises across all renewable technologies including offshore and onshore wind, biomass, solar, hydro and biofuels. Her focus is on corporate strategy within the sector including M&A, equity raising and investment and exit mechanisms. Michelle’s clients range from utilities to IPPs, private equity and infrastructure funds, institutional investors, banks and governments.