3 - Inside ESG: The tiny fund that took on a US giant and won
The Story of Money
Manuela Saragosa
4.4 • 400 Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2021
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The story of how a tiny, unknown hedge fund took on a giant of corporate America over climate change - and won. Charlie Penner of Engine No 1 talks about the very public proxy campaign he launched against Exxon Mobil, forcing the oil major to prepare for a future free of fossil fuels.
In the third episode of our special five-part series on sustainable or ESG investing, produced in partnership with the FT’s Moral Money team, Derek Brower, US energy editor, and Attracta Mooney, the FT’s investment correspondent, reflect on whether the battle between Engine No 1 and Exxon marks the beginning of a new kind of activist investor.
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Check out stories and up-to-the-minute news from the Moral Money team here.
Get 30 days of the premium Moral Money newsletter free, together with complimentary access to FT.com for the same period, visit www.ft.com/insideesg
Review clips: The Sun, Channel 4 News, Euronews, PBS Newshour, GMA, CNN, CNBC, ExxonMobil
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Am I missing anything? Is this the right decision? |
| 0:02.0 | Can I show this data? |
| 0:04.0 | Am I too late? |
| 0:05.0 | Find clarity in your investment decision-making. |
| 0:08.0 | Manage your portfolio for sustainable growth |
| 0:11.0 | and regulatory alignment |
| 0:12.0 | with the ultimate blend of powerful AI and |
| 0:14.6 | industry expertise. |
| 0:16.5 | Reduce risk, meet your sustainability goals and push the boundaries of possibilities based on |
| 0:21.1 | facts, not opinions. |
| 0:23.0 | Clarity AI scaling human decisions through tech. |
| 0:26.6 | Visit clarity. |
| 0:28.0 | AI and take action today. |
| 0:30.4 | So picture this, the financial markets not as a trading floor but as a boxing ring. |
| 0:36.0 | In one corner is a tiny investment fund, in the other is a behemoth, the oil giant Exxon Mobile. |
| 0:44.0 | Exxon is a 250 billion dollar heavyweight. |
| 0:49.0 | The fund weighs in at just 240 million dollars. But the tiny fund is not intimidated. It has the crowd on |
| 0:58.8 | its side. It keeps punching. It wants to knock Exxon into shape. |
| 1:04.0 | It wants the oil giant to factor climate change into its business plans. |
| 1:11.0 | What are its chances do you reckon? |
| 1:13.0 | That was the question earlier this year, |
| 1:15.0 | when an obscure hedge fund went up against Exxon, |
... |
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