“Socially conscious investments are going to grow significantly over the coming years”, says Jose Luis Jimenez at Global Invest Forum

Jimenez was speaking in a panel on thematic investing, inside the 19th edition of the Global Invest Forum, hosted in Paris for International Institutional Investors & Asset Managers. “Our portfolio has a big ESG component, specially on the “S”. We tend to focus mostly on environmental issues when we talk about ESG, but the fact is issues like covid are having a huge impact on our societies and economies, and I think the social side of investments is going to grow significantly in the next few years. We need to play our part from the investment community”.

As an example, MAPFRE’s CIO cited the Inclusion Fund, the first of its kind investment fund with a focus on disabled people, launched a couple of years ago along French investment boutique Le Financiere Responsable. “We try to capture the value of companies that promote hiring people with diabilities, as they perform better in the long term”.

Private assets is a trend where MAPFRE sees growth in this low interest rate environment. “As most insurers, we have realized this type of assets can bring low volatility and higher yield”. MAPFRE has recently launched an infrastructure fund with Abante and Macquarie. “In the next 5-7 years, rates are going to stay low, and we need to diversify and provide some returns, so if we can combine the ESG investments with higher returns, this is going to be the winning combination”.