09:00 - 10:45

Wim van der Beek (The Netherlands)
Managing Partner - Goodwell Investments

Bob Bragar (The Netherlands)
Director - Strategies for Impact Investors

Legal Risk Management for Impact Investors: Should We Be Using Local Law and Local Lawyers?

It's time to take a fresh look at how MIVs and other impact investors handle legal risks. The microfinance industry is turning a corner, and investors need to keep up. Our risks are increasing. In an age of negative news about MFI over-funding, client over-indebtedness, and increasing failure rates among some well-known microfinance organizations, this is the moment to look carefully at whether our legal rights are adequately secured. Until now, the standard practice for many loan contracts has been to use New York or UK law. Why? For good reasons: New York and UK law are well-developed for international commercial transactions. They give predictable results on a wide variety of legal issues. They also let MIVs use their familiar lawyers, avoiding the muss and fuss of dealing with various lawyers in the target countries. But is this wise? Will this work in a foreclosure? Have investors, in fact, been generating legal documents of little use in a crisis? How can we collect when negotiations fail? Already, in workout situations we are seeing that lenders with inadequate documents are receiving short shrift. In some cases, unsecured lenders are not even being invited to the negotiation. Investors or donors want reasonable protections. This is a reputational issue for MIVs, as well as a potential financial and legal problem. Would using local law and local lawyers open options or shape them differently? Who should care about this? Investors, donors, and the business people who manage risk. Isn't this just a technical issue for lawyers? No. Choice-of-law decisions are not just legal issues. They can involve new strategy, budget, staff training and structure for developing legal documentation.

Gloria Nelund (United States of America)
Chairman and CEO - TriLinc Global, LLC

Connecting Impact Investing to Significant Capital

This presentation will provide an overview of the characteristics and trends of three major pools of investor capital with a focus on strategies to attract the untapped market of retail investors.

Joachim Merten (United Kingdom)
Chief Operating Officer - QC Private Equity Services Ltd.

Impact Investing and Private Equity

Private Equity as an asset class has been strongly evolving over the last 40 years. Although ESG principals have been a long term commitment of private equity investors, it is still challenged today whether private equity has contributed to impact investment. So it is to be identified, how a private equity investor turned his obligations towards investors and all other stake holders (including society and nature) into a sustainable investment approach.

Patricia von Papstein (Austria)
Founder - Capital in Love

Which Products Maximize Wealth?

The speaker introduces the audience to the investment principle of coupling Eros with Wealth. She explains how Eros Impact spices up impact and traditional investing by improving art of living across the globe.

She will present examples of art of living products and illustrate how their power to create sensual thrill and intimate relationships are excellent profit back-ups.

Finally she invites the audience to reflect on the impact of their investment portfolios by sharing her current "shopping list".