ESG Goes to War
Also aircraft leases, well-timed options trades, Tim Leissner and a common ownership TikTok.
“‘It’s the first European war in the ESG age,’ says Steven Fox, chief executive of the strategic intelligence group Veracity Worldwide” to the Financial Times. He is talking specifically about a decision by Levi Strauss & Co. to pull out of the Russian market following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and more broadly about decisions by lots of international companies to pull out of Russia to protest the invasion, or to comply with sanctions, or to avoid the risk and uncertainty and bad publicity of staying in Russia. It is quite a line. In the olden days — 10 years ago? — big public companies were essentially in the business of maximizing cash flows for shareholders; they might pull out of a war zone to avoid risk, but you would not expect every public company to take a moral stand on every important issue. In the new world of environmental, social and governance investing, companies are expected to be moral actors.
More specifically, in the new world of ESG and the invasion of Ukraine, companies have to think about three competing goals: