Investment Night 2022

On Tuesday, May 10, the Klasse Theater opened its doors for the ninth edition of Investment Night. Starting at seven in the evening, students were welcomed with a cup of coffee, tea or a glass of soft drink. Full of enthusiasm, our guests were able to meet here and get ready for the evening, which was yet to come. The theme of this evening was ESG Investing. After the topics ‘Fintech’ in 2021, ‘Is data the new oil’ in 2019 and ‘Different investment strategies over the years’ in 2018, the topic Environmental, Sustainable & Governance Investing was now on the program. This topic focuses mainly on the green aspect of investing. A broad topic that we wanted to address from different angles with our speakers. Such as showing strategies for investing in green products, green funds and shareholder activism. All ways you can come across later in your career.

Ageas

Once everyone was in, it was time to kick off the evening. After a welcome from the committee’s chairman, Stijn van den Berg, and the introduction of the chairman of the day, Pascal Spelier, it was time for our first speaker. That speaker was Frank Vandenborre. Frank’s presentation was a little different than the other speakers; this one was via a Livestream. Frank was happy to help us out, since we had received a last minute cancellation from our first speaker. However, he had to be in Brussels on the day of Investment Night, so he could only dial in. To look on the bright side: Actually, it is a bit nostalgic for last year, when everything was still online through COVID-19. Frank Vandenborre is an employee of Ageas, a large Belgian insurer, active in as many as 14 countries, especially in Europe and Asia. Frank began by explaining Sustainability and ESG within the company and the ways they are implementing it through Connect21 and Impact24. Ageas has used these strategies to ensure that sustainability is not seen as an obstacle, but rather something that creates a positive impact for the company. With this presentation, the evening was off to a good start and the atmosphere was good.

AlpInvest

The second speaker of the evening was Maaike van der Schoot of AlpInvest. From this part of the evening, all the speakers were physically present in the room. AlpInvest is a global private equity investor, which has invested over 80 billion Euros since the start of their organization. AlpInvest functions as a ”fund of funds”. This is an investment fund that does not invest directly in companies but in funds that do so. Maaike explained to the audience how private equity works, and why it has so much impact on the world around us. Then she explained the practical side of the subject about how she and other funds ensure a good and safe supply chain. Following her presentation, as with the other presentations of the evening, was a 10-minute interactive session where our guests could ask questions. No one shied away from asking questions as Maaike was overloaded with questions, so many in fact that half of the questions had to be saved for the break or answered by email later. Fortunately, after this it was time for a break. 

“The idea is to rank the companies you invest in as good, neutral or bad.”

ASN Impact Investors

After a short break with some coffee or tea and some time to discuss the first two presentations we continued with the second half of the evening. Mariëtta Smid was now allowed to step onto the floor for ASN Impact Investors. ASN Impact Investors is the branch of ASN Bank that focuses on doing good for the world with their investments in the areas of people and rights, biodiversity and climate. Treaties have been drawn up for these topics and conventions such as Paris 2015 have been held. The idea is to rank the companies you invest in as good, neutral or bad. The goal of ASN Impact Investors is to make the world a better place through investing and therefore not to invest in bad companies, nor neutral ones. A very beautiful mission. Mariëtta also told us about their biodiversity fund, something that is certainly worth mentioning.

Follow This

As the last speaker we had invited Roos Wijker. Roos does not work for a company like the other speakers, but for an organization. Follow This does not help the world by investing in green companies or by implementing some green shades in their strategy. Their mission is in fact to impose a green strategy on the big polluters of the world. Roos spoke with great passion about how she was involved early on in the creation of this organization with the team, which now consists of only 10 people. Through shareholder resolutions Follow This tries to force large companies to change. So the key is in convincing the shareholders.

After the fourth speaker, our chairman did a nice post-session speech and rewarded our speakers with flowers and a nice bottle of wine. Everyone who had come received a goodie bag and could join the drinks. A nice ending to a beautiful day, with tasty snacks and of course the necessary drinks.

Are you inspired by my story and do you want to be the person responsible for Investment Night 2022? Then quickly become an active member at Asset | Accounting & Finance. You can sign up via: Info@Asset-AccountingFinance.nl