Private equity as an emerging asset class of responsible investment

Responsible investment has traditionally focused on the equities of listed firms. However, its principles can be applied to other asset classes. In this paper we are concerned with “Responsible Private Equity” (RPE), which can be defined as the use of private equity deals to finance initiatives that balance financial, social, and environmental considerations. We suggest that this emerging asset class has some strengths that could allow it to overcome the present financial turmoil: 1) RPE investors are effective providers of incentives; 2) they can provide to the portfolio firms knowledge, network and reputational resources that are crucial to the exploitation of business opportunities with a positive social or environmental impact.