OFI Private Equity Capital has become the first company to have its environment, social and governance policy rated by EthiFinance, the independent extra-financial research agency, as a listed company made up of the companies held in its portfolio.
OFI Private Equity Capital was given the rating AA or 3.5 out of five.
The rating follows the hiring in 2008 of a director of sustainable development at OFI Private Equity Capital and the signing of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment in April 2009.
The aim of the extra-financial rating is to establish a mechanism by which to identify the risks and opportunities facing a business in terms of its corporate social responsibility.
The rating is made according to the EthiFinance’s ESG guidelines: commitment, execution and performance. The analysis is based on two source of information: the study of internal and public documents and direct interviews with relevant parties.
An average across the 40 ESG criteria of AA or 3.5 out of five represents, according to the EthiFinance scale, a high level of commitment and a partial level of execution. This rating is 30 per cent based on the OFI Private Equity Capital rating, and 70 per cent based on the rating for its investments, which comprise its major shareholdings.
Several areas of progress were identified by EthiFinance, such as performance reporting, wider governance measures and the involvement of ESG criteria in the value chain with the suppliers of portfolio companies.
Olivier Millet, president of the management board of OFI Private Equity, says: “This first extra-financial rating highlights the hard work both among our personnel and among the management of portfolio companies in the implementation of concrete ESG policies. It demonstrates that it is possible in Private Equity to combine financial performance, since our portfolio generated a consolidated Ebitda margin of 17 per cent in 2009, with non-financial performance. We will continue our hard work in financial and non-financial value creation, a sustainable combination to create value for our shareholders”.
Emmanuel de La Ville, president of EthiFinance, adds: “The ESG policy put in place both at the listed company OFI Private Equity as well as at its portfolio companies is the fruit of a strategic and pragmatic commitment among its management. This rating will allow the rate of progress for each criterion to be measured. This breakthrough will without doubt be followed by other players in private equity. The controlled application of non-financial criteria is one of the major issues of the coming decade for small-cap listed and non-listed companies.”
