PA Future October 2024

Maria Teresa Zappia, head
of sustainability and impact,
tells Natalie Kenway how
Schroders Capital is shaping the
future of sustainable finance
through private markets

There is immense potential
to shape strategies that address both environmental and social challenges
in private markets’

Investors need to bear this in mind when choosing which private markets solutions to allocate to, and Emily Pollock, co-founder of private asset solutions at Schroders Capital, agrees. She says to start in the world of private market investing, investment managers should work with an adviser or experienced professional. Although you can upskill to a point, “part of the beauty of private markets is that it’s fragmented” and “it’s not like you can go online and look at a database”.

With nearly 800 million people lacking access to clean drinking water, private capital will play a key role in providing

Downing’s Roger Lewis speaks to Natalie Kenway about an abundance

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Private markets are particularly well suited for sustainable investments but before public market

Private markets are particularly well suited for sustainable investments – but require

Maria Teresa Zappia is the head of sustainability and impact at Schroders Capital. She has led BlueOrchard’s impact team since 2018 and having been part of the BlueOrchard management team since 2008. At Schroders Capital, Maria Teresa leads all sustainability and impact-related activities across private asset themes and asset classes. At BlueOrchard, she is responsible for the Public Private Partnership funds under the firm’s management and impact practice.

The private investment market has steadily grown over the past 10 years, with investors chasing diversified returns and hedges against an increasingly volatile public market. This has been all the more apparent recently, with the global economy still reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic, increased geopolitical tensions across the globe and interest rates spiralling upward.

Private climate funds concentrated in high-emitting sectors
Asset-weighted sector exposure %

Emily Pollock, co-founder of private asset solutions, Schroders Capital

It seems like every week there is an asset manager announcement around an acquisition or new product focused on private markets. This appears to be good news for sustainable investing, as we discovered in this PA Future private markets special, after a tumultuous few years of greenwashing concerns, backlash and underperformance.

Although Schroders Capital was only officially formed in 2021, some of the teams that make up the business – which has grown organically and through acquisition – have operated for more than 70 years, Schroders Capital’s Maria Teresa Zappia tells PA Future. It would be fair to say they have the expertise of investing in private markets where, she says, investing in sustainability and impact truly began.