In an effort to match investor’s demands Schroders appears to be expanding its scope to include BlueOrchard’s specialised style of impact investing and microfinance. With diminishing social trust in large-scale corporate activities, BlueOrchard’s focus on smaller emerging and frontier environmentally-conscious industries could help Schroders align itself with the interests of investors, who are becoming increasingly concerned with the public relations and government regulation of eco-unfriendly businesses.

The purchase marks a significant shift in the asset management capabilities and priorities of Schroders, a company who historically has dealt with large-scale investment portfolio management and wealth planning. BlueOrchard, on the other hand, is primarily focused on microfinance and non-financial returns on investments, using social and environmental targets. The expansion of scope to include these targets could help Schroders’ investors navigate the increasingly socially-concerned business landscape under the watchful eye of the public.

This acquisition comes just a few days after Moody’s Investors Service’s recent acquisition of Four Twenty Seven, a climate change risk assessment and economic analysis firm, reported on here. This series of acquisitions of emerging environmental and social investment and analysis firms marks an increasing focus on non-financial investment targeting, with more consideration given to investments in sustainable and renewable projects.

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