Overheard at SuperReturn North America
& SuperReturn Energy

Hear what our experts in New York had to say about the industry's hottest topics

On today’s investing environment

“Across markets, companies and investors find themselves at an inflection point. Businesses are being forced to adapt to an environment of lower liquidity, valuations reconnecting with fundamentals, and tougher company financing conditions. LPs are adjusting to a new economic and investment regime that is characterised by tightening monetary conditions, higher volatility and elevated geopolitical risks. Private market investors have a strong track record of capitalising on volatility and generating investment alpha across market cycles. GPs will need to factor in these conditions as they manage their investment programme and consider new investments.”

Bill Ford, Chairman and CEO, General Atlantic

On the E of ESG

“There is often a very strong correlation between generating environmental benefits and generating returns. If you develop renewable energy and provide more megawatts of power, you naturally get a better economic return. If you are invested in agriculture and you cut water consumption, you’re improving margins, which translates into better financial returns. GPs are moving in this direction, in particular as they see the potential for selling at a premium – there’s a demonstrable economic benefit.”

Ethan Levine, Head of Real Assets and Sustainability at Commonfund Capital

On the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)

“The IRA is not just a climate bill; it is an industrial policy bill. It will lead to a reshoring of many jobs, battery production, solar panel production and installation, electric vehicle manufacturing – in fact, it will help drive anything to do with rebalancing the system towards renewable energy. It’s great for the US and it’s great for the climate space.”

Geoff Eisenberg, Partner at Ecosystem Integrity Fund

On solving renewable energy intermittency

“The US electricity grid was built for centralised control with regulatory oversight. Now, we are seeing a rapid increase in more distributed resources, with decentralized power production and consumption. As people switch to electric vehicles, the already growing energy demand will double, creating more complex challenges. But there are ways to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning in a very short time to manage this complexity. It used to be good practice to install sensors on assets that could inform you if there was a problem. We can see a world where this goes up a step and becomes automated, enabling full predictions that allow you to maximise physical assets – and that’s all for just the cost of software.”

Don Tappan, Partner at Braemar Energy Ventures

On the democratisation of private equity

“My main concerns are education and curation. Firstly, retail investors need to understand clearly what they are buying. And secondly, someone really professional has to select the best funds out there and offer a curated suite to them. You need a ton of experience and resources to do this effectively. This is the entire industry’s responsibility – if we don’t get this right, the retail investing opportunity might disappear very quickly.”

Steffen Pauls, Founder, Chairman and CEO at Moonfare