The Impact Investing Conference held on Thursday at the Espace Namur in Luxembourg-Hamm, organised by the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI), in association with LuxFLAG and the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP), heard from Experiences in the Field, in a panel session moderated by Germain Birgen, Director at the Banque de Luxembourg, in front of an audience of around 175 participants, many of whom had come to Luxembourg from abroad for the conference.
Markus Beeler, Head of Product Management, ResponsAbility Investments AG in Switzerland, said they are active in over 90 countries. In order to be successful in those countries, it is nexcessary to have a stringent and comprehensive risk management strategy. The company runs one of the largest microfinance funds; he stressed that microfinance is just one of the areas in which they work, and that other areas are expected to grow at a faster rate that microfinance in the future.
David Goebbels, Head of Inclusive finance and private sector at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in Luxembourg, explained that they invest a lot into projects in Africa, with measurements in terms of creation of jobs and increased sanitation standards. More standards are needed to attract the private sector, but it ismportant not to crowd out existing projects on the ground. In Mali they are continuing to work despite the security issue, by aligning with local partners and being able to adapt.
Jacopo Signorile, Partner at Megrez Capital in Italy, revealed that, despite having the money to invest, finding the projects was difficult and needed industril experience. On the issue of measuring impact, he said that there are arguably too many indicators. As a result, economic impact comparisons are difficult.
On the issue of public-private partnerships, David Goebbels talked about the recent lauch of a financing initiative in the Grand Duchy which supports SMEs to the tune of up to €200k in certain sectors, inc ICT, FinTech, Innovation and BioHealth. the process is open until 25 May. He also referred to the work done by the ministry over the past six years, where the government has matched the money from the public sector, helping company does due diligence and the measurement of how the project has an impact on the ground.
Jacopo Signorile also talked about a project to reduce pollution in rivers and improvde quality of drinking water. Another project, related to the current migrant crisis, addresses a hybrid public-private investment product
Markus Beeler talked about a coffee co-operative in which they invest and whcih sells to the developed world. One of the challenges they face is cash-flow as well as long-term financing. Their partners are involved all along the value chain.
The issue of return on investment was also addressed by the panel who agreed that the return is both financial as well as the "doing good" factor.
Photo by Geoff Thompson (L-R): Germain Birgen, David Goebbels, Jacopo Signorile, Markus Beeler
