Investing that is made with the intention of creating measurable and beneficial social or environmental impacts alongside financial returns.
BayTrust’s Purpose is to accelerate bold and meaningful change, assisting BOP communities and our environment to flourish. BayTrust operates a ~$200m globally diversified investment portfolio with considerable assets that are held on behalf of the community. The aim of investing a portion of this portfolio in Impact Investments is to increase the Trust’s impact around its Purpose without materially compromising its overall investment returns and to address issues that granting is unable or ineffective in addressing.
Investing – an Impact Investment is not a grant. Any investments considered will need to demonstrate how the funds will be repaid.
Intention – the intention to create impact needs to be embedded into the investment, not a by-product.
Measurable - the impact needs to be identifiable and measurable in order for us to assess, manage and monitor the effect of the investment and compare it with other opportunities
Social or environmental impacts – BayTrust is interested in investing where the impact created is targeted towards three areas:
Addressing environmental or climate change issues.
Financial returns – the investment needs to return an appropriate risk-adjusted return.
BayTrust has allocated up to 15% of our total investment base of ~$240m to Impact Investing. Currently, this means around $36m allocated with ~$25m already committed to investments providing impact within the Bay of Plenty.
BayTrust usually only commits up to $2.5m into any one venture, however the total commitment depends on the nature of the investment and security over the assets.
BayTrust has allocated an additional $1m to a scheme that will specifically support smaller social enterprises providing social or environmental benefit in the BayTrust region. This allocation will consider investments between $50k and $250k. The process will be more fluid than for higher levels of investment, with an aim of a quick response, more acceptance of risk and other forms of assistance may be considered to support the enterprise alongside the investment.
A sample of some of our investments:
Purpose Capital - https://www.purposecapital.co.nz/ BayTrust has invested in Purpose Capital as one of the founding investors. Purpose Capital Impact Fund is an Impact Investment Fund seeking to create impact in the areas of affordable housing, environmental degradation, climate change and inequality.
Whakatohea Mussels (Opotiki) Limited (WMOL) - https://openocean.co.nz/ WMOL owns an open ocean mussel farm and processing factory in Opotiki. BayTrust’s investment into WMOL, both independently and through Purpose Capital, reflects the importance of providing employment in a region that has endured many years of disadvantage. WMOL currently provides ~200 jobs and this will grow as the company grows.
Tauranga Community Housing Trust – https://tcht.co/ TCHT is a registered Community Housing Provider that provides housing and related services to individuals and whanau with a special focus on disability and older people.
YouOwn – https://youown.co.nz/ YouOwn provides a shared ownership product, basically a loan that helps home buyers that lack a deposit but can afford repayments get into their own home.
For more information on this, please contact:
Terri Eggleton
Impact Investment Manager
Phone: (07) 578 6546 / Mobile: 027 2483905
Email: Terri@baytrust.org.nz