Mj Hudson Share Discussion Threads

[simon gordon] 13/6/2022 11:22

Forbes - 11/6/22:

A Comparative Analysis Of Three Proposals For Climate-Related Disclosures

...While this high degree of commonality provides some realistic hope for a global baseline on climate-related disclosures, the elephant in the room is how jurisdictions will deal with the standards set by others. Will the SEC allow companies to use ISSB? It has solicited public comment on this. Similarly, ESRS has stated that “other reporting standards can be used in addition [emphasis mine] to the EFRS.” This begs the question as to whether EFRS will acknowledge the ISSB on sustainability topics covered by both standards. This is obviously a fundamental question for EU companies since they all use IFRS. Non-EU companies that use IFRS will either choose to adopt ISSB or something similar (as some do with IFRS) or, highly unlikely in my view, come up with their own set of standards.

While the proposals implementation timelines vary by calendar and according to type of company, the general time frame looks to be 2023 at the earliest and, more reasonable in my view, 2024 or maybe 2025 for smaller companies.

I do not know how long it will take each body to review their comment letters and issue their final standards, which can always be adjusted in the future based on what is learned from their implementation. I’m guessing we’ll have all three by the end of the year. I’m also guessing that a similar comparative analysis done then wouldn’t turn up anything significantly different.

The key point is that great progress is being made developing a global baseline for climate-related disclosures. This bodes well for standards for other sustainability issues. My dream is that within five to 10 years we have a solid set of sustainability reporting standards on which high-quality assurance can be done, just as we have for financial reporting. Today it’s hard to imagine a world without required financial reporting based on a set of standards about a company’s financial performance. Another dream is that 10 years from now it will be hard to imagine a world without the same being true for a company’s sustainability performance.

[simon gordon] 12/6/2022 14:18

ESG Today - 8/6/22:

IFRS Builds Out International Sustainability Standards Board with New Appointees

The IFRS Foundation Trustees announced today four new appointments to the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), including Richard Barker, Verity Chegar, Bing Leng, and Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien, who join as inaugural members.

Launched in November 2021 at the COP26 climate conference, the ISSB aims to develop IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, in order to provide a global baseline of disclosure requirements that can be used by jurisdictions on a standalone basis or incorporated into broader reporting frameworks.



-----

Can see why the mega consultants/accountants are all over this trend.

-Deloitte: 345,000 staff, $50.6bn t/o.
-Accenture: 699,000 staff, $50.56bn t/o.
-PWC: 295,000 staff, $45.6bn t/o.
-EY: 312,000 staff, $40.6bn t/o.
-KPMG: 236,000 staff, $32.6bn t/o.

*Stats from Wiki.

[simon gordon] 11/6/2022 18:31

Deloitte - 14/4/22:

Deloitte announces $1 billion investment in global Sustainability & Climate practice

Deloitte has announced a significant expansion and investment in Deloitte Sustainability & Climate, a global practice serving clients as they define a path to a more sustainable future. Deloitte’s Sustainability & Climate capabilities will support clients as they redefine their strategies, embed sustainability into their operations, meet tax, disclosure, and regulatory requirements, and help them accelerate transformation of their organizations and value chains. Building upon decades of sustainability and climate client service, Deloitte is assembling one of the largest global networks of sustainability experience including an investment of US$1 billion in client-related services, data-driven research, and assets and capabilities.

“Taking action on climate change and sustainability more broadly is not a choice. It’s an imperative. And we all have a role to play. But it’s the business community that’s best positioned to lead the way on this,” says Punit Renjen, Deloitte Global CEO.

“We have the resources, skills and influence to help build stronger and more sustainable communities. And it’s our collective environmental and societal footprint that has the potential to make or break this decade of action. This is why we developed Deloitte Sustainability & Climate. It is our way of not only holding ourselves accountable for accelerating progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and commitments of the Paris Agreement, but effectively facilitating action across the business community.”

The global practice will help clients to transform at scale with the launch of the new Deloitte Center for Sustainable Progress (DCSP). In collaboration with leading academic, policy, business, and governmental organizations, the DCSP network will focus on holistic, results-oriented thought leadership, data driven analysis, and accountability reporting to guide organizations through their sustainability journeys.

Deloitte will also build on its efforts of empowering individuals as part of its WorldClimate strategy by offering a robust curriculum of sustainability training courses to all 345,000 professionals along with its clients and suppliers. The curriculum will be offered virtually and through the network of Deloitte Universities.

Jennifer Steinmann will serve as the first-ever Deloitte Global Sustainability & Climate Leader. “We believe a better future is possible and getting there will depend on a profound and lasting change in attitude and behavior,” says Steinmann.

“Deloitte is committed to helping clients move from sustainability and climate commitments to action. We will do so by working with organizations to create a transformation plan as well as helping drive collaboration across a broader ecosystem―of suppliers, clients and customers, policymakers, and alliance partners across industries.”

[simon gordon] 11/6/2022 10:55

ESG Today - 2/6/22:

Accenture, Microsoft to Co-Develop Climate & ESG Solutions

Accenture, Microsoft and their digital, cloud and advisory services and solutions joint venture Avanade announced today the launch of a new partnership aimed at delivering solutions enabling organizations to address their key sustainability challenges.

The partnership will initially focus on helping organizations transform operations, products, services and value chains to accelerate the net zero transition, with plans to expand focus in the future to tackle other ESG issues. The companies stated that they are investing in the co-development of solutions, designed from the start to emit less carbon over their lifecycle, and offering advisory services helping businesses to reduce emissions, transition to new energy sources, and reduce or eliminate waste.

The partnership comes as Microsoft and Accenture have each recently signaled an increased focus on providing sustainability-related services to enterprises. Microsoft recently launched its cloud-based sustainability suite, Cloud for Sustainability, and Accenture has made a series of ESG-focused acquisitions over the past few months for its Accenture Sustainability Services unit. The companies also collaborated on the launch of the Green Software Foundation.



-----

Looks probable that the price to buy an ESG consultancy will have rocketed as the likes of Accenture pivot into the scene. Same goes for the SaaS reporting services.

-----

MJH - 12/5/22:

In particular, the Group´s ESG services are gaining traction with new, prestigious global private equity clients. There has been significant interest in the new digital platform, ESGAdvantage, leading to client uptake ahead of management's expectations.

...our Data & Analytics division (which supports our clients in a number of key areas, including ESG) is attracting some of the largest names in private markets to us. We are increasingly finding ourselves considered the go-to solution provider in the sector.

[simon gordon] 11/6/2022 08:31

ESG Today - 2/6/22:

Nasdaq Acquires ESG Reporting Software Provider Metrio

Capital markets technology and exchange company Nasdaq announced today the acquisition of Metrio, a Montreal-based provider of ESG data collection, analytics and reporting software.

Nasdaq stated that Metrio’s software as a service (SaaS) platform will be integrated into its suite of ESG solutions, bolstering Nasdaq’s portfolio of IR & ESG services.

The transaction comes as companies globally are moving to measure and report on their sustainability performance, driven by increasing pressure from multiple stakeholders, including investors, consumers and regulators. ESG data collection, management and analytics are often cited as the most significant barrier to this process.

Founded in 2009, Metrio’s platform enables companies to streamline the sustainability reporting process with solutions for automated data collection, ESG performance measurement, analytics and dashboarding, multi-framework reporting, and stakeholder engagement and sustainability communication. The company’s clients include Target, Decathlon, Air Canada and TMX.

[simon gordon] 10/6/2022 15:10

Novata COO interviewed on this podcast at 23 minutes:

S&P Global - 27/5/22:

On the ground in NYC How climate change is forcing a new type of financial literacy

Corporates, financial institutions, investors and academics gathered in New York City on May 17 for the S&P Global Sustainable1 Summit to discuss topics such as net zero, the energy transition and ESG data challenges.

In this episode of the ESG Insider podcast, we bring you highlights from the panel discussions as well as interviews on the sidelines of the event.

We hear from Emily Chew, Chief Responsible Investment Officer at Calvert Research and Management, one of the largest responsible investment companies in the U.S. Emily talks about the intense level of engagement and coordination that climate change requires of companies.

"Every organization needs this multi-stakeholder, multi-pronged approach," she says. "It really stretches us into this new ... type of financial literacy that pertains to climate."

We also hear from the largest bank in the U.S. Rama Variankaval, Global Head of the Center for Carbon Transition at JPMorgan Chase and Co., talks about the challenge of putting climate targets into practice.

"We published a target and that's when the real work started,” Rama says. “It's easy enough to put a glossy 20 pages with numbers on it and pretty pictures of trees, etc. But then you have to go and say: Ok, what do you do with this?"

We also sit down on the sidelines of the event with Josh Green, Co-Founder and COO of technology platform Novata, to talk about the role of private equity markets in ESG. “If all the public companies in the world are fantastic in reducing their carbon emissions but private companies keep doing business as usual, we are not going to solve our climate problem," he says.

And we talk with Simran Heer, Program Manager at Microsoft, who explains how the company uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to tackle sustainability issues.

[simon gordon] 06/6/2022 15:33

Highest volume day since the breakaway gap on the May trading update and also January 13th.


free stock charts from uk.advfn.com

[simon gordon] 06/6/2022 12:18

In gold mining there are three grades:

1. Fine gold
2. Pickers
3. Nuggets or as called in Oz "rippers"

Finding land with all three is rare.

In the stock market, investors love recurring revenues which is a bit like fine gold. Speculators are constantly looking for rippers, a stock that can multiply very quickly. Finding rippers is extremely rare, fine gold is much easier and constant if the land is good.

MJH has fine gold with the outsourcing division. Advisory is similar to pickers. It's in Data & Analytics where there's a chance and opportunity to create a ripper. A 'Software as a Service' product offering that takes off and has a potential global customer base in the thousands.

Could ESG Advantage be a ripper, a big golden nugget?

Emma Bickerstaffe looks to be the intellectual overseer of Advantage. Emma joined MJH in May 2021 and on her CV was Head of Strategy and Chief of Staff at HSBC UK for four years:

'Emma Bickerstaffe heads up the ESG solutions team, working closely with the ESG and sustainability advisory business. Emma’s main focus is to develop digital offerings to help clients assess their ESG exposure and progress towards ESG integration.'

LinkedIn profile:



A new vacancy at Advantage was published last week:

Client Success Manager

We are now looking for a Customer Success Manager to support and delight the users of our ESG Advantage platform and deliver an exceptional customer experience. The ideal candidate will have previous experience in a client facing role in a SaaS B2B company and be able to demonstrate how they have promoted client loyalty.

You will be the primary point of contact throughout the customer lifecycle, developing relationships with key stakeholders and maintaining a focus on driving business value from onboarding through renewal.

-

Here's hoping Advantage is a SaaS ripper, like this chunk found detecting on Aussie Gold Hunters:

[simon gordon] 04/6/2022 09:19

Consulting.us - 5/5/22:

PwC Consulting adds Sphera's ESG platform to its offerings

PwC has entered a partnership with Sphera, a provider of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and risk management software, to offer Sphera’s software to its client base.

The alliance will scale the implementation of Sphera’s software solutions, which provide advanced ESG tracking and reporting. PwC’s clients will be able to access the leading ESG solution platform in concert with the Big Four firm’s industry expertise and strategy and technology consulting capabilities.

“PwC is excited to team with Sphera to bring its industry leading capabilities to market around the critical topic of sustainability, reflecting the firm's values across a host of environmental, social, and governance challenges,” said Neil Dhar, vice chairman and co-leader of PwC's consulting business. “With increasing complexity surrounding regulatory requirements, such as SEC climate disclosures and the EU taxonomy system, there's a clear need to supply verifiable data to the market.”

Stakeholders are increasingly demanding transparent and auditable reporting for corporate efforts in climate change, social responsibility, and governance. Sphera says ESG performance metrics underpinned by robust evidence and reporting will increasingly determine cost of capital, employee retention, shareholder trust, and customer loyalty.

In response, consulting firms continue to upgrade their sustainability groups. As part of its “New Equation” strategy, PwC trumpeted ESG as a strategic priority internally and as a consulting offering. Rival Deloitte recently announced a $1-billion investment into its sustainability practice.

“With recent regulatory changes implemented and more to come, global companies need to be focused on actively managing and mitigating ESG risk,” said Paul Marushka, Sphera’s CEO and president. “Sphera's vision is for all businesses to view ESG and sustainability strategies not just as a compliance exercise but as a tool for innovation, and we are excited to collaborate with PwC to help companies deliver on their ESG ambitions.”

Sphera is based in Chicago and provides software and consulting for ESG, operational risk management, and environment, health, and safety. The firm was last year acquired by Blackrock in a deal valuing Sphera at $1.4 billion.

[simon gordon] 04/6/2022 08:49

Axios - 5/5/22:

YvesBlue, a startup that offers ESG-as-a-service for financial institutions, raised $5 million in seed funding, the company tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: As YvesBlue CEO Anna-Marie Wascher puts it, "the market for ESG tech has really blown up in the last year," but most of the funding remains sequestered in carbon accounting.

Driving the news: Illuminate Financial led the round, which also included Aflac Ventures, Tribeca Early Stage Partners, SixThirty, Day One Ventures and Walter Ventures.

YvesBlue spun out of Wascher's former firm, Flat World Partners, in 2020.
How it works: YvesBlue's modular software is designed for portfolio managers working with family wealth offices, investment banks or other large financial institutions under pressure to analyze and report their ESG practices.

Firms pay at least $20,000 per year to use the software, with additional modules running the cost up closer to $75,000 to $100,000. YvesBlue currently has around a dozen clients, Wascher tells Axios.

Modules include data visualization for analysts to use for shareholder or regulatory reports.

YvesBlue currently uses data for public companies only, but is working on a module that aggregates data on private companies, Wascher says.

Between the lines: YvesBlue isn't trying to be another data broker for ESG, Wascher says, given there are a multitude of companies and established groups like Moody's already staking a claim in that realm.

It instead wants to aggregate the data and customize the analysis to fit the firm's initiatives, like weighting carbon emissions data or board diversity data differently depending on what the firm wants to prioritize.

The bottom line: Decreasing risk within a portfolio is generally encouraged for long-term investors like pension funds or wealth offices. Wascher, a former investment banker, wants to prove with YvesBlue that it's also the right thing to do for the planet and for returns.

"It's exciting to see, after 15 years, [ESG] is the focal point of investment management. People kept telling me good luck with the nonprofit when I started YvesBlue, but the world has come a long way," Wascher says.

[simon gordon] 03/6/2022 11:02

The Super ManCo team in Dublin:

[simon gordon] 03/6/2022 08:53

This little start up in Amsterdam supplies the EU Taxonomy and SFDR solution on the ESG Advantage platform:

[simon gordon] 01/6/2022 17:04

May was a highly constructive month after a pretty torrid eight months:


free stock charts from uk.advfn.com


------

Consultant ELIX floated in mid 2020 and hit the ground running with earnings upgrades and a tripling of the share price. They've done three bolt-ons. Fundies have been ultra keen to get a position and directors have done four secondary placings.


free stock charts from uk.advfn.com

[simon gordon] 29/5/2022 12:21

Some big money and heavy hitters behind this new ESG reporting platform. One aspect of ESG Advantage is that they have sustainability consultants ready to hold the clients hand and offer expert advice.

Hamilton Lane - 4/4/22:

Novata Launches Novel Technology Platform to Enable Private Markets to Track ESG Data

NEW YORK, April 4, 2022 /Businesswire/ – Novata, a public benefit corporation and technology platform that provides private markets with intuitive Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data management solutions, today announced the official launch of its product platform.

Backed by a consortium that includes the Ford Foundation, S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), Hamilton Lane (NASDAQ: HLNE) and Omidyar Network, and with the support of more than a dozen private equity firms and pension funds, Novata is the leading ESG data management platform built specifically to help GPs collect data from their portfolio companies. The Novata platform provides:

- a clear starting point for selecting ESG metrics
- painless data collection into a secure database
- data insights and analytics tools to inform investment decisions.

“It’s clear we’ve reached an important inflection point for ESG in the private markets – private companies and their investors face escalating pressure to describe the impact they have on people and the planet,” said Alex Friedman, CEO & Co-Founder at Novata. “Our platform offers a holistic solution for the gap in private market players’ ability to collect, store, effectively analyze and report on relevant ESG data, and we are laser focused on helping private companies meet the ESG challenge.”

Directly informed by the needs of general partners and limited partners, Novata is designed to provide users with a clearer view of ESG impact through its secure technology platform. Novata simplifies the ESG data collection process for GPs and their portfolio companies by providing clear metric definitions, practical guidance on which metrics to collect and how to calculate them, and human support when needed. Most notably, users can customize their metrics selection to ensure they are collecting ESG metrics that are most relevant to their business and investors.

“After several rounds of beta testing and strong early customer feedback, we are pleased to officially launch the Novata platform today and believe it will revolutionize the way the private markets interact with their ESG data,” said Lauren Peat, Chief Revenue Officer at Novata. “GPs, LPs and their portfolio companies are looking for a clear, simple, and customized technology platform for seamless data collection, and this is exactly what Novata aims to deliver.”

Interest in ESG has been on the rise in the private markets, exemplified by private equity firms that are increasingly focused on effectively quantifying and reporting on ESG impact for investors. Yet ESG measurement remains challenging for the private market participants, most of whom are in the early stages of collecting sustainability and social impact data.

“We fully support Novata’s mission to simplify the process of ESG data collection for the private markets,” said Erik Hirsch, Vice Chairman and Head of Strategic Initiatives at Hamilton Lane. “While investors’ ESG expectations have evolved from a ‘trust me’ approach to a ‘show me’ one, the challenges for all market participants to be accountable and for their ESG data to be measurable remain significant. Technology can allow for better collection and consumption of that data without imposing on the ‘one size fit all’ approach that’s existed historically. Novata is that technology.”



-

Novata

[simon gordon] 28/5/2022 15:50

City AM - 14/2/22:

EY to hire 1,300 new UK employees after launching climate focused EY Carbon business

Big Four accountancy firm EY has set out plans to launch a new, climate-focused consultancy business which will see the firm hire 1,300 new UK employees.

The auditor’s plans to launch its own ESG consultancy, EY Carbon, will see EY invest £100m, in line with plans to recruit 1,300 people over the next three years.

Speaking to City A.M. EY Partner Rob Doepel, who is set to head EY Carbon, said EY’s 1,300 new employees will be based across the country, as he explained that the new employees will include 12 new partners and 250 sustainability specialists.

EY’s plans come after the Treasury told UK listed companies that they have until 2023 to outline their plans to reach net zero, as firms also face mounting pressure from investors to make their businesses more sustainable.

Continued...

[simon gordon] 27/5/2022 10:27

Looking more deeply into Bain's website, it looks like they turnover c.$2bn per anum consulting with PE firms:

'Private equity is in our DNA. We are the world’s leading consulting firm for the industry— with a global practice more than three times the size of our nearest competitor. PE comprises about one-third of our global business, having grown eightfold in the last 15 years. Our team of more than 1,000 private equity consultants serves clients globally, providing essential guidance on strategy, sourcing, due diligence, post-acquisition value creation, and institutional investor strategy. Our depth of expertise and strong market positioning have played a pivotal role in more than half of $500 million–plus buyout transactions globally since 2000.

We partner with you throughout the entire investment cycle. Ensuring you have the right investment thesis and winning approach strategy, we help focus your deal generation and sector screening process. Post-acquisition, we support the pursuit of rapid returns by developing strategic blueprints for acquired companies, leading workshops that align management with strategic priorities, and directing focused initiatives.

We have helped the leading institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds develop top-performing investment programs across private equity, real estate, and infrastructure asset classes. As investors ourselves, we leverage our expertise to expand your participation in direct investing opportunities. Proprietary data tools, such as DealEdge, SPS, OPEXEngine, and Pyxis, reveal key insights and boost our best-in-class capabilities.

The private equity landscape is being reshaped by myriad forces: the rise of virtual sales, the omnipresence of digital, a renewed focus on talent, and, most notably, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing. Leading private equity firms are embracing the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation wholeheartedly. They are also meeting demand for more sustainable, socially conscious corporate behavior, weaving ESG into all operations—and gaining market share in the process.

Amid these shifts, private equity continues to supersize, with larger funds doing larger deals. With a deep bench, proven expertise, and state-of-the-art advanced analytics tools, we can help you navigate these changes and achieve superior results.'

[simon gordon] 27/5/2022 06:48

Bain & Company is the largest consultant to the PE industry, according to Wiki:

'Around 2000, the firm became more involved in consulting private equity firms on which companies to invest in and collaborating with technology consulting firms. By 2005, Bain had the largest share of the market for private equity consulting.

By 2018, Bain's Private Equity group was over three times as large as that of the next largest consulting firm serving Private Equity firms and represented 25% of Bain's global business.'



----

Bain's annual turnover is around $5.8bn with 13,000 employees.

They have an ESG team for PE:

[simon gordon] 26/5/2022 20:14

Couple of interesting and historic pieces:

PE Stack - January 2021:

MJ HUDSON - PERACS DEAL MARKS YET ANOTHER ACQUISITION IN THE PRIVATE EQUITY SOFTWARE SPACE



--

MJ Hudson Tech Strategy:

[chrisdgb] 24/5/2022 12:33

Indeed, will be 60p on a bid.......

[18bt] 23/5/2022 10:18

Topped up a bit this am. Suspect will be a long burn before value is widely recognised and will be hangover from overpriced IPO

[18bt] 23/5/2022 10:18

Topped up a bit this am. Suspect will be a long burn before value is widely recognised and will be hangover from overpriced IPO