Where To Next?

With the impact of Covid-19 so widespread and affecting so many different facets of our lives, it is next to impossible to not to comment in some form on the ramifications of such a global event. On this occasion though, for me the standout “impact” of CV-19 has been the overwhelming sense of community and support that has overshadowed everything else. We have been witness to outstanding achievements by the likes of Captain Tom, a 100 year old war veteran who has raised over £25mm for NHS related charities by walking 100 laps of his garden, the incredible “spread hope” rainbows that have appeared in windows across the country, to what must have been the largest single music concert “One World: Together At Home” - all in support of those key workers who have put our well being ahead of their own.

We have seen global crises in the past, from the global financial crisis that started in 2008, 2 world wars, the crash of 1929 to name but a few. So how will CV-19 shape our future? Who is to say for sure as we have not yet come out the other side of this crisis and even as I write, new unprecedented events are unfolding such as negative oil prices caused by a culmination of excess supply, collapsing demand due to CV-19 and a lack of storage. This is not be the only “unprecedented” event that has occurred, nor will it be the last.

With this in mind, I have no doubt that our focus will, once we come out the other side of this pandemic, begin to focus on those companies, industries and perhaps countries that emphasise E(environmental) S (social) G (governance) factors as a mainstay. If nothing else, the one thing CV-19 has demonstrated is that the cost of not focusing on ESG factors is far costlier that we would have ever imagined not 6 months ago. There will be a much more concentrated examination of the corporate world and there will be big rewards in terms of share price gains and capital raising opportunities for companies who “do the right thing”. This will not just be in companies that produce goods and services that are in themselves good but in companies whose corporate structure is run with ESG as one of the guiding mainstays. It will be very interesting to discover who those companies are.