Heartland Blog

Dear US Signatories, Since its inception, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has prioritized a market-led evolution toward long-term responsible investment. PRI remains committed to active, ongoing engagement with signatories regarding significant matters affecting financial markets including environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Today the evidence of the urgent need to address sustainability issues, such as climate change, is incontrovertible—we no

Investor confidence in the principles of ESG investing appeared to wane in 2019. Recent survey data show that a greater portion of respondents predict that their ESG investments will underperform their non-ESG portfolios. The survey, conducted by RBC Global Asset Management and which polled almost 800 investment professionals across a diverse group of industry participants, gave further insights into a possible growing skepticism about ESG. Additionally, there was an uptick i

WASHINGTON — A secret agreement has allowed the nation’s homebuilders to make it much easier to block changes to building codes that would require new houses to better address climate change, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. The written arrangement, in place for years and not previously disclosed, guarantees industry representatives four of the 11 voting seats on two powerful committees that approve building codes that are widely adopted nationwide. The

New ESG bills pending in Congress represent a potentially significant and step-wise change in the status quo with regard to federal regulation, Kirkland & Ellis’s Ali Zaidi says in Part 2 of a series on ESG regulation. Together, they show the readying of a new playbook that looks more like what investors have become familiar with in Europe and Japan. Increasing interest in sustainable investment has spurred a growing community of executives, investors, and practitioners focus

The U.S. is witnessing a growing state-level patchwork of regulations designed to spur sustainable ESG investments. In Part 1 of a two-part series on ESG, Kirkland & Ellis’s Ali Zaidi says while federal regulators are fairly silent, states seem eager to fill a regulatory signaling void—becoming the stateside regulators to listen to on ESG matters. Discerning investors and fund managers can finally hear stateside regulators signaling on sustainable investment— but only if they

NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- KPS Capital Partners, LP ("KPS") announced today that the first and final closings of KPS Special Situations Fund V ("KPS Fund V") and KPS Special Situations Mid-Cap Fund ("KPS Mid-Cap") were simultaneously held on October 15, 2019. KPS Fund V and KPS Mid-Cap, with $7.0 billion in total investor capital commitments, will both focus on control investments in highly complex corporate carve-outs, turnarounds, restructurings, bankruptcies a

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Blue Wolf Capital Partners (Blue Wolf), a New York-based private equity firm, announced the acquisition of Kirlin Design Build, LLC (KDB), one of the country’s leading engineering and construction companies focused on large, complex federal and private sector projects. Management has partnered with Blue Wolf in this investment to enable KDB to execute on its ambitious strategic plans with a debt-free balance sheet, ample liquidity and strong

Global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) and private equity firm Stellex Capital Management today announced they have closed on their acquisition of Vigor Industrial LLC and MHI Holdings LLC. In addition, Carlyle and Stellex announced they have appointed Jim Marcotuli as CEO of the newly created company comprising Vigor and MHI, effective today. Marcotuli brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in the defense and manufacturing industries. He has serv

Responsible investment in the US has lagged behind Europe because of an antipathy towards environmental, social and governance factors, according a partner at alternative asset manager, Pantheon. Alex Scott, speaking at a morning briefing, said the US market is still a lot more polarised in its approach to ESG, despite evidence that it does not negatively impact returns. Currently Pantheon has almost 7,000 underlying portfolio companies which have maintained an approximately

TORONTO, Oct. 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aon plc, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, today released the results of its 2019 Global Perspectives on Responsible Investing survey and found an enormous uptick in the importance of responsible investing (RI) from institutional investors across geographies, investor types and firm sizes. According to Aon’s survey of nearly 230 investment professionals globa