Sustainable capital services

Integrated ESG due diligence and quantification

It’s no longer enough for investors to screen an opportunity against a preset list of ESG-related risks. In today’s markets, a more sophisticated approach to due diligence can provide an advantage. Leading dealmakers look carefully at the potential for ESG factors that either create or destroy value.

We tailor our flexible due diligence framework to fit investors’ strategy, policy and objectives for a particular fund or investment. We help identify ESG topics that have material financial impact on a target, assessing the target’s ESG performance and management approach, benchmarking against competitors and leading practices, and highlighting post-deal opportunities to create value by improving a target’s ESG profile.

These value levers are maturing into a set of ESG due diligence criteria with important implications across the M&A landscape, from raising financing and capital allocation, to carrying out acquisitions and divestitures. This ongoing transition will require evolving capital allocation to take fuller account of intangible attributes that matter. For example, what is the value of high employee morale, or diversity of thinking, or an enhanced reputation as a greener company? These types of attributes can be quantified and linked directly to cash flow forecasts that drive enterprise value.

Value enhancement and post-deal transition

Business leaders recognise that positioning their companies to succeed in the transition to a sustainable economy can require bold, transformative moves. Decarbonising an existing business might involve significant capital outlays. Redesigning a business to tap into growing demand for low-carbon goods and services might call for acquiring new lines of business, restructuring existing ones and divesting others.

Leading investors recognise that deals with strong ESG credentials can yield a premium, and so they factor sustainability objectives and cash flow impact into their deal thesis and their value-creation plans. We help investors and corporations to understand, in quantitative terms, how a given asset’s value might change because of sustainability-related market shifts, regulatory and policy developments, or concerns related to environmental and societal impact.

Based on that understanding, we help investors and corporations develop a roadmap to bridge the gap between pre-investment due diligence findings and value creation by helping companies to seamlessly embed ESG throughout their operations, while ensuring alignment with the acquiring company’s values and strategic direction.

We can also work with investors throughout the holding period, and just prior to exit, to realise material improvements of an asset’s sustainability profile.

Sustainable infrastructure and capital projects

Decarbonising existing infrastructure—and building new low-carbon infrastructure, from power plants and grid networks to ports and shipping terminals—will be essential to achieving net zero targets and sustainable development goals. The world also faces a growing need for sustainable infrastructure projects that can help withstand extreme weather and other physical risks resulting from climate change. These infrastructure and capital projects will require substantial capital to deliver.

We assist infrastructure investors and owners in finding effective ways to raise and deploy capital, whether equity or debt, public or private, or blended. Our experience structuring transactions among investors, communities, indigenous communities, governments, banks and companies can assist these stakeholders in accessing sustainable capital and delivering the returns and sustainability outcomes they are seeking.roident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Sustainable capital raise and debt advisory

With the expanding range of green and sustainable finance products available, the options can feel overwhelming. That’s why we bring together our community of solvers—global sustainability and sector specialists, empowered by the right tech and data insights—to help you pinpoint the most effective sustainable finance products or structures to create the most value. 

Investees:

We support corporate borrowers looking to effectively align their ESG strategy and commitments to financing goals. For instance, we can assess your 'readiness' for sustainable finance, help you plan your green or sustainable capital and operational expenditure, and communicate your ESG initiatives as part of your investable proposition. We can also structure and implement green and sustainable financing products, such as sustainability-linked loans or bonds, including key performance indicator (KPI) determination, target-setting, sustainable finance framework development, principles of taxonomy-aligned use of proceeds, and reporting. Ultimately, we can introduce you to the right pockets of capital, enabling you to raise the most competitive finance to meet your goals. 

Investors:

We support financiers seeking to understand how best to strategically align their financing activity with green or sustainable commitments to minimise value erosion and maximise value creation impacts. We also advise on effective implementation or operationalisation of strategic initiatives, e.g., when planning to launch an impact fund, divest hard-to-abate assets or deploy green or sustainability-linked loans.