Hamilton Lane's Giannini Sees ESG Having Lasting Impact
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- What happens when a bankruptcy attorney with a deep understanding of turnaround situations is asked to provide advice on a private equity acquisition? If that person is Mario Giannini he slowly morphs his legal expertise into managing buyouts, turnarounds and other private company special situations. Some 27 years later, the head of Hamilton Lane Advisors LLC and this week’s guest on Masters in Business overseas 400 employees operating in 17 offices around the world.
One of the few publicly traded private-equity firms, Hamilton Lane has $68 billion in assets under management and provides advice on more than $450 billion in additional assets. The firm looks for companies whose assets are more valuable than their book value, and can be enhanced as a going concern versus merely being purchased at a discounted price to be liquidated.
Giannini, who was named to CIO’s “2020 Knowledge Brokers All Stars,” explains why he believes environmental, social and corporate governance – ESG - investing is now part of mainstream equity risk analysis, and he believes it is going to have lasting impact on both the public and private markets.
A list of his current reading is here; A transcript of our conversation is available here.
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Posen's research into monetary and fiscal policies have propelled the institute to international recognition. He was a voting member of the Bank of England.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Barry Ritholtz is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management, and was previously chief market strategist at Maxim Group. He is the author of “Bailout Nation.”
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