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Apple issues second green bond, a $1 billion bond to finance renewable energy & closed-loop supply chain

Yesterday Apple issued its second “green bond”, a $1 billion bond dedicated to financing renewable energy, energy efficiency at Apple facilities and throughout its supply change, to close its supply chain loop, and procure safer materials for its products. 

The bond offering includes a specific focus on helping Apple meet a goal of

  • developing a closed-loop supply chain and
  • using only renewable resources or recycled material in the manufacture of its products.

The bond is to mature in 2027 and will yield 95 to 100 basis points more than Treasuries. Bank of America Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. arranged the sale.

Investors are seeking lower-carbon investments. Demand for green bonds is growing significantly.

According to the Climate Bonds Initiative, in 2016 $81 billion of green bonds were issued. This is double the number of green bonds that were issued in 2015.

See:

“Apple Issues a Second Green Bond to Finance Clean Energy” | Alex Webb, Bloomberg, 13 June 2017

“Apple issues $1 billion green bond after Trump’s Paris climate exit” | by Valerie Volcovici, Reuters, 13 June 2017

Climate Bonds Initiative | “Climate Bonds Initiative is an international, investor-focused not-for-profit. We’re the only organisation working solely on mobilising the $100 trillion bond market for climate change solutions.”

#Apple #finance #greenbond #GoldmanSachs #BankofAmerica #JPMorganChase #renewableenergy #cleanenergy #investments #bondmarket #climatechange #climatechangesolutions

 

 

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Downtown San Diego | early morning vistas

Early morning vistas.

San Diego is, indeed, beautiful and has what is widely acknowledged as one of the best, if not the best, micro-climate in the United States. Very Mediterranean.

Why “tech”, that I appear to mention so often and that is taking root in the downtown San Diego economic eco-system?

“Tech,” in my mind, is no more than information gathering, processing, analyzing, reporting, and using, with certain questions asked (by people), the questions usually having to do with certain industries (art, finance, transport, design, building and construction, chemistry, physics, aerospace engineering, entertainment, etc.).

Sort of like groups of individual Marines gathering, processing and using information, on steroids.

Why pay attention to tech in downtown San Diego? Some of these companies have just appeared downtown, willy nilly, not according to the city plan. People in the tech industry generally speaking make more money than those working in the hospitality industry (housekeeping, serving tables, etc.). It is money generated here rather than earned elsewhere and brought here by visitors, tourists, and buyers of second or third homes.

 

#SanDiego #downtownSanDiego #realestate #resilience #art #tech #technology #finance #urbanliving #urbanluxury

 

 

 

 

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a ‘mainstream’ approach to ESG | finding the “metrics that matter”

Goldman Sachs highlights “the metrics that matter, a ‘mainstream’ approach to ESG.”

Seeking to identify companies with long-term growth potential, Derek Bingham of Goldman Sachs Research’s GS SUSTAIN team and his colleagues study which sustainability measures most closely align with returns over time.

Investors can improve their risk analysis and returns, he says, by identifying sustainability metrics that offer hard data (e.g., resource efficiency for a metals company, employee turnover for an investment bank) that correlate with a company’s long-term stock performance.

There is an opportunity for portfolio managers to identify which ESG metrics matter most and invest accordingly.

Bingham recommends a “holistic view” and discourages the “silo” effect.

Listen to the Goldman Sachs podcast Episode 63: The Metrics that Matter – A ‘Mainstream’ Approach to ESG”

#GoldmanSachs #ESG #riskanalysis #investmentreturns #resilience #data #metrics #finance #longtermgrowth

“Episode 63: The Metrics that Matter – A ‘Mainstream’ Approach to ESG” | Derek Bingham, GS SUSTAIN, Goldman Sachs Research, & Jake Siewert, Global Head of Corporate Communications, Podcast: ‘Exchanges at Goldman Sachs,’ recorded 2 May 2017

 

 

 

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smart luxury | private museums & the sharing of art & knowledge

“We wish to share and interact with more people and encourage our friends to share their collections too. Only thus we can grow and learn from each other.”

Wanwan Lei and Li Han of Beijing share their motivation for opening their collection to the public through the establishment of a private art museum.

Larry’s List predicts that private museums,  70% of which have been founded since the year 2000 and whose resources and funding do not rely on public support, will increasingly cooperate with each other in the future.

Networks have been founded to increase partnerships between private museums in support of the loaning of works of art, the presentation of traveling exhibitions, and the sharing of knowledge.

See:

“Private Art Museum Report” | Larry’s List, December 2015

“Larry’s List is launching the Private Art Pass 2017 – The Ultimate Privilege Card for the Art World” | Larry’s List

#art #collections #collectors #privatemuseums #realestate #resilience #finance #smartluxury #luxury #urbanluxury

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non-smart luxury | investors & retailers slug it out on Madison Avenue

The Real Deal points out that as of May 2016, the amount of available retail space along Manhattan’s Madison Avenue had been growing. Retailers with financial wherewithal were looking elsewhere.

New owners had  bought Madison Avenue properties at record prices. Investors, partners and banks were preventing the new owners from leasing to retailers below certain “pro-forma” numbers. Rents were increasing steeply.

The effect did other than than satisfy investment requirements. As asking rents broke $2,200 per square foot in prime stretches of Madison Avenue, retailers who might otherwise have taken space there were looking for alternative locations.

Retail insiders said some of the buyers who acquired properties over the last year or two at eye-popping prices have their hands tied by investors, partners or banks who won’t let them lease to retailers below certain target amounts or “pro forma” numbers. That, they say, is exacerbating availabilities.

“New owners who bought at record prices that required record rents are less likely to cut pricing because they can’t satisfy their investment returns,” said Jeremy Ezra, a broker at RKF.

But brokers said this slowdown is different from the recession in 2009 and 2010 when retailers did not have the financial wherewithal to make deals. That’s not the case today.

See:

“Madison Avenue retail empties out” | retail spaces on the tony stretch are clearing out as rents get too high and tenants look for cheaper options, Adam Pincus, The Real Deal, 1 May 2016

#luxury #urbanluxury #smartluxury #realestate #retail #resilience #MadisonAvenue #Manhattan #finance

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smart luxury | Tesla surpasses Ford & GM in market value

Tesla has surpassed Ford and GM in market value.

Investors investors are betting that the world’s appetite for electric vehicles will continue to grow and that Tesla will grow with it.

Although the big automakers are financially healthy and produce the best-selling types of vehicles, like trucks and sport utility vehicles, they are perceived as lagging in cutting-edge technology like alternative power and autonomy.

See:

“Tesla Hits a New Milestone, Passing G.M. In Valuation” | The New York Times, 10 April 2017

Tesla

#luxury #urbanluxury #smartluxury #energy #smartenergy #alternativepower #Tesla #resilience #finance #automobiles #transit #smarttransit #urbanplanning #design #climatechange #art #smartart #collectionsmanagement #realestate

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urban & street art | challenging paradigms

Christian Utz is co-founder of 52Masterworks, a crowd investment art collection platform that serves art collectors and investors.

In 2016, Mr. Utz opened the Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA) In Munich.

Speaking with Larry’s List, Christian Utz describes urban and street art, their challenge to paradigms of high and low art, the limited access to (supply of) this form of art, and how urban and street art are largely neglected by current art discourse.

Urban Art reaches beyond any niches. Urban artists often use harsh imagery associated with neglected topics. But, whilst the message is provoking, it is equally approachable and sometimes even compassionate. In the world of urban art, everyone is welcomed to join the artistic conversation – that makes this art form so special.

Street Art challenges the paradigms between high and low art. The consequences of the institutionalization of this art form are the limitation of access to artworks, and especially, the volatility of market prices. I guess it has become much harder for new starters to collect than ten years ago.

Street art as an art form of the 21st century is rightly considered as a globally celebrated phenomenon. Nevertheless, street and urban art is barely part of the present art discourse.

See:

The Collector Who Founded Germany’s First Urban Art Museum | Larry’s List, 22 March 2017

52Masterworks

Larry’s List

Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA)

#art #artcollections #streetart #urbanart #collectingart #collectionsmanagement #smartart #urbanluxury #smartluxury #resilience #investing #finance #tech

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smart prosperity | capitalizing on urban resilience

Prosperity will ultimately belong to cities and nations around the world that find ways to capitalize on strategies of resilience against the inevitable impact of climate change.

Those cities will retool themselves for new technologies and global businesses whose employees, reflecting a growing worldwide generational shift, want to walk, ride bikes and take mass transit.

“The challenge …is taking the long view.’

See: “Changing Climate, Changing Cities; Rising Waters Threaten China’s Rising Cities” | Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times, 7 April 2017

#urbanluxury #luxury  #smartluxury #realestate #resilience #urbanplanning #design #development #finance #climatechange

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smart art | purchase channels, concentrations, information asymmetries

By analyzing the performance of early-20th-century British economist John Maynard Keynes’ art collection, and comparing the collection with the simulated performance of thousands of hypothetical art portfolios, economists David Chambers, Elroy Dimson, and Christophe Spaenjers have found that the art market is structured much like a lottery.

Relatively few winners (artists and their collectors) reap enormous gains; the majority of artists are marginal to the overall value of the market.

The Keynes collection was studied as “one of only two complete, or near-complete, financial records of an art collection from initial purchase to final valuation.”

The analysis and comparison with hypothetical portfolios reveals several features of the Keynes collection with implications for the broader market:

  • Purchase channel. Paintings and drawings by Degas, Cezanne, Picasso, and Braque—were largely purchased at auction, where Keynes may have spotted bargains. The works he acquired through other channels, through dealers and on the primary market, underperformed relative to his auction purchases.
  • Concentration. 80% of Keynes total spending on art went to just 10 works

“Changes in the total value of the Keynes collection are largely driven by changes in the market value of a few artists, such as Braque, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Seurat. Conversely, what happens to all the lesser-known artists…is not an important driver of returns.”

The fact that much of the value of the Keynes portfolio lies in a small number of key works, and buying them required significant upfront investment, suggests that successful arts investment appears to be a pastime for the already well-capitalized.

Well-positioned and deeply informed insiders may, however, take advantage of the information asymmetries of the opaque art market, such as knowing when a work might become available or where a willing buyer lies, to effect savvy purchases and “buy low.”

See: “Keynes’s Art Collection Shows Why Art Investing Is Like the Lottery” | by Anna Louie Sussman, Artsy, 5 April 2017

#art #artcollections #luxury #smartluxury #urbanluxury #finance #resilience