Insights & News

ESG and impact investing is a journey. We wanted to highlight its importance and hint at further changes and improvements to come as we continue to evolve our thinking, proposition and reporting to clients at Alvarium. This piece is meant as a first instalment to our thinking in this area.

Hadley, our JV partner that focuses on Greater London residential regeneration projects has just received unanimous approval for two new schemes in Goodmayes (568 residential units) and Canary Wharf (900 units).

As we enter the third quarter, investors are greeted with both optimism and concern. Optimism because there is still a strong case for above-average growth in the years ahead, but concern because the nature of this growth is likely to change. The tailwind of the fiscal and monetary-fuelled pandemic recovery is shifting to a lower but perhaps more sustainable trajectory, led by the consumer and corporate sectors. We are calling this switch: Slowing and More Uncertain Macro to Vibrant and More Dynamic Micro.

LXi Reit was launched in 2016, aiming to give bond-like regular income to its backers. The plan was to buy buildings and hotels on long leases or to fund pre-let sites where high-quality tenants have agreed to move in. Many of its purchases have leases of at least 20 years, with rental uplifts index-linked to inflation.

Having suffered an almost-inevitable share price slump during the pandemic, long-income specialist LXi REIT has been given something of a caffeine boost during recent months – fitting given the investor’s new-found focus on drive-through coffee outlets. An equity issuance in March – its fourth since a 2017 initial public offering – was a roaring success, raising the company £125m compared to a target of £75m and bringing a raft of new investors onto its share register. Its share price is now close to its post-IPO high from late 2019.

As we close the first quarter, we remind ourselves of the extraordinary performance of equity markets from the bear market lows of last year. One year on, most global markets are up 50-60% on average, with an even stronger performance in the US, with the S&P 500 Index up 75% from its March 2020 low and with many technology and more growth-oriented shares up over 100%.

Over the last three months, Alvarium have been working as advisor to a number of SPACs and are pleased to report the latest result, the merger of the Riverstone Decarbonisation Plus Acquisition Corporation (DCRB) SPAC with Hyzon Motors, with an implied EV of the combined company of $2.1 billion.

As we enter 2021, it is worth considering how the events of the past year might shape the decade ahead. While the world still grapples with the devastating consequences of the pandemic, and our hearts and prayers go out to families who have been affected, there is also a positive legacy to this crisis: namely economic and societal change.

We have a multi-temporal framework for thinking about the world: winter of discontent, spring recovery and secular shifts beyond.

Alvarium has teamed up with asset manager Osesam to launch a platform to invest $100m (£79m) a year in France. It will commit between $5m to $50m per deal, alongside co-investment from private and institutional clients, targeting mainly residential assets valued up to $200m.