Custom Investment Outsourcing Strategy Committee Monthly Investment Outlook Members
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august 2013 commentary consulting group Custom Investment Outsourcing Strategy Committee Monthly investment outlook members GLENN REGAN A Compendium of Insights and (Co-Chair) Recommendations for August 2013 DOUG SCHINDEWOLF (Co-Chair) FRANCO PIARULLI (Vice Chair) Macroeconomic View Investment Strategy View • Morgan Stanley economists expect the growth • At the broad asset class level, our tactical view CRAIG DOBBS rate of the global economy and the US econo- remains somewhat defensive: overweight to DEAN EISEN my to accelerate during the second half of this alternative investments, underweight to global year and in 2014. fi xed income, and neutral to global equities KEVIN FLANAGAN • The US Federal Reserve is likely to begin and cash. JOHN GRANGER tapering the pace of its securities purchases in • Within fi xed-income, expected rate normaliza- September. tion continues to argue for favoring shorter- GOVIND KILAMBI • The unwinding of three historical buildups duration securities. around the same time is buff eting emerging • We provide several alternative investment JANGHOON KIM market economies. strategies and opportunistic investment ideas FRANK NICKEL III to consider. PAUL RICCIARDELLI This Month’s Feature: Impact Investing (Part 1) MICHAEL ROSLONIEC ANDREW SLIMMON The Custom Investment Outsourcing Strategy Committee provides a forum for harnessing the fi rm’s intellectual capital, with MICHAEL WILSON a particular focus on providing investment-related ideas and recommendations. The Committee’s recommendations assist the fi rm’s Financial Advisors in servicing institutional and ultra high net worth investors that have decided to outsource their Chief Investment Offi cer function through the Custom Investment Outsourcing program. consulting group / custom investment outsourcing strategy committee monthly given the investor community’s rising attention to the responsibility (or irre- sponsibility) of corporations’ business activities and externalities. Beyond CSR as an investment consideration, some investors are committed to “Socially Responsible Investing” (SRI), where investment funds exclude certain businesses or types of business through negative screening. These typically include Impact Investing (Part 1) companies associated with more “im- pure” products, like tobacco or fi re- arms. SRI, however, relies on ethical considerations without regard to fi - nancial factors, and it resides on the fringe of the investment world. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley to grow, new types of social invest- This brings us to impact investing. Wealth Management commissioned ments that leverage markets and in- In the evolution of social investing, a team of students from the Columbia novation for impact are sprouting from its origins in the “Carnegie mod- University School of International and around it. el” of philanthropy, impact invest- Public Aff airs to conduct an evaluation Business and social investment ing is the latest and most ambitious of impact investing. This is the fi rst of broadly converge in a couple of ways. form. A range of actors today fashion a three-part summary of their fi ndings, The fi rst is through the now-ubiqui- themselves as impact investors, from focusing on how the space is evolving; tous concept of “Social Enterprise,” foundations to for-profi t fi rms. One Part 2 will focus on fi ve sectors that generally defi ned as “businesses such infl uential organization is the are attracting particular investor at- whose primary purpose is the com- Rockefeller Foundation, which has tention and Part 3 will conclude with mon good.”1 The distinguishing fea- collaborated with leaders in fi nance, some thoughts about important con- ture about social enterprises is their philanthropy and development to siderations and future prospects for utilization of business disciplines build the platform for “impact invest- this type of investment. and market forces to advance their ing” – a term originally coined by the social and/or environmental agen- Rockefeller Foundation itself. das. Invariably, social enterprises Another pioneer in the space is History and Evolution never abandon their primary mission, the Acumen Fund, a non-profi t that The ancestor to impact investing which is in some way social (or envi- channels donations and grants to so- is private philanthropy, which traces ronmental). While they often aim to cial enterprises in the form of debt or its origins to Andrew Carnegie in the be fi nancially self-sustaining, they are equity. The Acumen Fund’s primary 19th century. Carnegie was not the – by defi nition – not driven foremost concern is not with generating mar- fi rst to donate portions of his wealth by a fi nancial bottom line. ket-rate returns on their investments, to charity, but he was the fi rst man “Corporate social responsibility” an approach it shares with many im- of signifi cant wealth in America to (CSR) represents the second major pact investors. Increasingly, however, champion prominently the practice of convergence of business and social in- fi rms and funds are entering the space private giving. Spurred by Carnegie, vesting. As consumers become better with expectations of truly competi- private wealth in the 20th century informed and more selective based on tive returns. The total value of capi- would fl ow to universities, libraries, ethical issues tied to corporate activi- tal deployed for impact investments hospitals, and any place that the pub- ties, CSR has become more the rule rose to $4.4 billion in 2011, which was lic and non-profi t sectors left a void. than the exception for businesses. channeled to approximately 2,200 Philanthropists accepted these social Corporations have found that “doing projects.2 The varying types of in- investments as sunk costs that they good” can translate directly to “do- vestments and actors in this emerg- would not retrieve. While this tradi- ing well” – or, at the very least, “doing ing space only enhance the ambiguity tional form of philanthropy continues bad” can directly decrease share value around defi ning impact investing. 2 morgan stanley | august 2013 Please refer to important information and disclosures at the end of this material. consulting group / custom investment outsourcing strategy committee monthly Investing with Impact (continued...) What Exactly is Impact of philanthropy, in which fi nancial referred to as environmental, social, Investing? returns are expected but not para- and governance (ESG) issues. The no- There is no generally accepted mount in an investment decision, and tion of “social returns” can seem neb- defi nition of impact investing. While they are certainly not market rate. Put ulous. Terms like “student transition most defi nitions of impact investing diff erently, this type of impact invest- rate” or “number of people served” include references to both fi nancial ing prioritizes nonfi nancial (social) are not common features in fi nancial and social returns, the lack of unifor- returns over fi nancial returns. This vocabulary, and can be more diffi cult mity hinges on a particular aspect: fi - particular notion of impact invest- to ascertain. Furthermore, these met- nancial returns. ing, however, is far from universally rics are relatively new and untested, What sorts of fi nancial returns can accepted. A GIIN survey found that and while they are rapidly evolving, at be expected from an impact invest- 65 percent of impact investors ex- present they are underdeveloped next ment? In short, the answer varies by pect market-rate fi nancial returns.4 to their fi nancial equivalents. To de- sector, geography, risk profi le, and Indeed, look no further than Morgan fi ne a successful investment in terms stage of investment. The infl uential Stanley’s own defi nition: “Impact In- of social impact is complex and often Global Impact Investing Network vesting characterizes an investment case-specifi c. Furthermore, it is diffi - (GIIN) does not confront this ques- approach that aims to generate risk- cult to determine what an “adequate” tion directly in its commonly used adjusted fi nancial returns while sup- social impact looks like. While it is not defi nition of impact investing, as porting positive environmental and/ easy to delineate adequacy thresh- “investments made into companies, or social impact.”5 olds, three major tools are emerging organizations, and funds with the in- in the impact investing space to mea- What Constitutes Successful tention to generate measurable social sure social impact: IRIS, PULSE, and and Unsuccessful Investments? and environmental impact alongside a GIIRS. These three impact metrics fi nancial return.”3 The type of fi nan- Impact investors often are one of complement one another and shape cial return is tellingly unclear. two types: “fi nancial fi rst” or “impact what constitutes a successful impact Impact investments span both fi rst.” The former seeks to optimize investment. emerging and developed markets, in- fi nancial return while requiring some iris (Impact Reporting and Invest- volving companies in various phases measure of social and environmental ment Standards) is a set of metrics of their growth, with investors pur- impact (usually by targeting risk-ad- that governs the way companies re- suing a wide range of returns - from justed returns), while the latter seeks port their social and environmental below-market to market-rate. Many to optimize social and environmental performance. Operated by the Global impact investors actively seek to place impact with a fi nancial fl oor, willing Impact Investing Network, IRIS met- capital in businesses that are high-risk to accept a higher risk or below mar- rics span an array of performance and would not therefore receive fund- ket returns in order to create some so- objectives, such as operational and ing from traditional sources. As with cial good. However, impact investors product impact, and include sector- philanthropists, these investors are increasingly reject these types of dis- specifi c standards. It shows, in one seeking to fi ll a basic societal void, but tinctions, as refl ected in an investor snapshot, everything from “operat- through a slightly diff erent approach. survey in 2011.