March 15, 2022
Since 2014, eight years after when the Russian government seized Ukrainian sovereign territory in Crimea, over $196 billion dollars was raised for the companies in Russia’s largest equity index. The Bloomberg’s Russia Large & Mid Cap Price Return Index covers 85% of the market capitalization of the Russian market.
The top 20 banks raised $176.5 billion dollars. Many of these banks have strong ESG commitments.
More than 26% - or $51.2 billion – of deal flow over the past eight years is by banks, highlighted in bold, who are both publicly-traded and report they have Human Rights Policies. Questions are:
Did these banks implement their ESG policies when raising this capital for these Russian companies?
Did these bank change how they implemented their ESG policies leading to improved deal flow screening as a result of the Russian government’s invasion of Crimea, Ukraine eight years ago?
How will these banks update their ESG policies to improve their deal flow screening as a result of the Russian government’s war of choice?