Arcano Asset Management has raised over EUR200 million to date for the Arcano Impact Private Equity Fund (AIPEF) and has already completed 10 transactions, including primary fund investments and direct co-investments in companies.
AIPEF is looking to invest in private equity funds with a clear focus on social or environmental impact, aiming to generate measurable positive impact alongside a financial return in line with Private Equity profitability.
AIPEF, which expects to achieve a EUR300 million target size in the in the coming months is supporting companies contributing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly through impact themes such as energy transition, promotion of health and wellbeing, sustainable agriculture and high-quality education.
The Fund is primarily focused on the US and the European markets, and its transactions include primary funds, as well as secondary transactions and direct co-investments in companies which generate a positive impact. AIPEF has already closed several transactions in the target sectors. Through the health and wellness vertical, the Fund’s investments are supporting mature and established companies that improve the quality and access to services within the healthcare sector, as well as on life sciences companies, with an important innovation component. Through the education vertical, investments are promoting quality employment creation, implementing training models in service companies with an important technological component. Finally, regarding energy transition, AIPEF has focused on investments accelerating decarbonisation and waste reduction to support the development of solutions to manage the negative effects derived from climate change.
Ricardo Miró Quesada, Partner and Head of Private Equity at Arcano Partners, says: “We are really pleased with the good performance of AIPEF. We are managing to put together a really attractive portfolio of assets that combines the generation of attractive returns with the social and environmental objectives demanded by our clients and the society.”
In September 2020, Arcano was the first Spanish asset manager to sign the Operating Principles for Impact Management, an initiative aiming to become a reference framework for impact investors in the design and implementation of their impact management systems throughout their investment process.
At the same time, earlier this year the entity renewed its collaboration with ‘Foro Impacto’, the technical secretariat of the National Advisory Board for Impact Investment (Spain NAB), which has been a member of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investments since June 2019. Arcano, together with Spain NAB and other asset managers, has led the development of the Toolkit to attract public and private funds to catalyse impact investment, thus contributing to provide knowledge to the impact investment industry.
Furthermore, in line with its commitment to sustainability and in order to gain further understanding of climate risks and how they can affect investment decisions, Arcano recently decided to publicly support the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and to progressively incorporate the recommendations proposed by this initiative into all the fund manager’s investment strategies, including the Private Equity one.
