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Our briefing for Thursday, October 14, 2021:
Oct 14, 2021 3:54:55 PM
- In the United States, case numbers and deaths are falling and vaccination rates are rising, largely thanks to sweeping vaccine mandates put in place across the country. White House officials announced on Wednesday that vaccination rates increased by 20%, and that 77% of eligible Americans have had at least one dose of vaccine. The vaccine mandates put in place by local and state governments, healthcare systems, social institutions and private businesses have all contributed to the increase in vaccination rates, said White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients. The Biden administration has pushed hard to bump up vaccine rates, announcing policies last month that require healthcare workers and federal employees to be fully vaccinated.
- In Canada, the province of Quebec has extended the deadline for healthcare workers to get their shots, from October 15 to November 15. The move came as a surprise, as Health Minister Christian Dubé had been insisting on having the vaccine mandate in place by this Friday. He said his decision to extend the deadline was difficult but necessary to avoid losing staff. "I have the responsibility to protect the health-care network of Quebecers," Dubé said during a news conference. "The risk right now is too high, and it would be irresponsible to roll the dice with the health of Quebecers."
- The United Kingdom is in for a difficult winter, even if Covid-19 cases remain low, said Professor Chris Witty, the government’s chief medical advisor. “The winter as a whole, I regret to say, is going to be exceptionally difficult for the (National Health Service) and general practice is going to be absolutely at the forefront of this, unfortunately…” Witty said at the Royal College of General Practitioners’ annual conference. “Zero Covid over this winter is a completely impossible dream...what we hope is we can keep it roughly to low levels.” The U.K. reported 42,776 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, up from 38,520 the day before and the highest number since mid-July.
- In Japan, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has dissolved parliament, setting up the country for a pandemic-era election. Kishida’s Liberal Democratic party is focusing largely on coronavirus measures, including a plan to provide oral antiviral medication this year. The campaign will officially start on October 19, with the vote taking place on October 31. Meanwhile, case numbers in Japan have begun to fall, on Monday the country reported 369 new infections while Tokyo reported 49, the lowest number since June 2020. The vaccine rollout in Japan has sped up, with almost 70% of the population fully vaccinated to date.
- South Korea has assembled a panel that will debate a strategy on how to best live with Covid-19. As the country moves through the latest wave of infections, the health ministry said it will focus more on hospitalizations and deaths rather than daily case numbers. The government plans to relax coronavirus restrictions for fully vaccinated citizens and have milder Covid-19 patients recover at home as part of the strategy. Earlier they announced a phased plan to return the country to normal, which will start in November when 70% of the population is expected to be vaccinated.
- Australia’s state of Victoria is set to exit lockdown, despite hitting a record number of new cases. Victoria state reported 2297 new cases and 11 new deaths, surpassing the previous record of 1965 set on October 9. Despite the rising case numbers, Premier Daniel Andrews said the state is set to reopen next week once they reach the 70% vaccination milestone. “Save and except for this point – case numbers, particularly among unvaccinated people, will translate into a number of hospital patients,” he said. Concerns were raised about the high case numbers possibly affecting the state’s reopening, but case numbers are still within modelled predictions.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
UK social impact investment market swells to a record GBP6.4bn in year of the pandemic
Brief: Social impact investing in the UK has increased by almost eight-fold over nine years from GBP833 million in 2011 to GBP6.4 billion in 2020, according to new figures released by Big Society Capital, a UK social impact investor. The data, from Big Society Capital’s Annual Market Sizing Report, shows there has been consistent growth year-on-year with a particular acceleration between 2019 - 2020, the year of the pandemic, which saw a 26 per cent increase in the value of social impact investments in the UK (26 per cent 2019-2020 vs 21 per cent increase 2018-2019). Social property funds continue to account for the largest portion (45 per cent) of the social impact investment market and has seen eight-fold growth since 2016. Social lending accounts for 43 per cent of the market, seeing three-fold growth since 2011.
Pandemic and climate change are biggest deal blockers in next 12 months, say UK dealmakers
Brief: UK dealmakers are equally convinced that the biggest threats to completing deals in the next 12 months will be issues stemming from the pandemic and climate change. That's according to a survey of 400 UK and US-based dealmakers by Datasite, a leading SaaS technology provider for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) professionals. The research shows that 41 per cent of UK dealmakers expect the biggest M&A dealbreaker in the next 12 months to be Covid-19, just ahead of climate change at 40 per cent. By contrast, 48 per cent of US dealmakers expect climate change to be the biggest dealbreaker in the next 12 months, followed by Covid-19 at 32 per cent. “Britain’s economy has certainly come a long way following the darkest days of the pandemic, but we still have some labour and supply chain issues to resolve,” says Merlin Piscitelli, Chief Revenue Officer for Datasite in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The trends shaping post-pandemic property investments
Brief: Now that more than 18 months have passed since Covid-19 started sweeping the world, we have a good understanding of how the pandemic has affected real estate investments. In some ways, it has changed the game. In other ways, it has simply underlined a number of trends that were already shaping the sector. These ‘megatrends' will likely cross decades and decades, and have big implications for real estate - boosting some sectors and disrupting others. Below is a snapshot of the trends that have shaped 2020 to now, and how we see them developing in the coming decade. While we are not predicting the end of the office tower, we do expect a fall in their popularity with tenants. Global lockdowns have proven the viability of remote working and, even as the world normalises, many companies are adopting a hybrid working model going forward.
Covid-19 puts spotlight on range of ESG issues, RBC Global Asset Management Survey finds
Brief: The adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration remains strong amongst global institutional investors, while a significant group has also placed greater emphasis on ESG considerations as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the 2021 RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) Responsible Investment Survey. The 2021 survey highlighted that while ESG adoption remains near peak levels amongst institutional investors globally, there is a sizable group of institutional investors (29 per cent) who have placed greater emphasis on ESG considerations as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. These investors are also the most vigorous supporters of ESG as an enabler of investment performance, as nearly all of this group (97 per cent) believe ESG integrated portfolios are likely to perform as well or better than non-ESG integrated portfolios, a significant difference compared to the overall global respondents who said the same (83 per cent).
Ray Dalio says the workplace is never going back to the same way it was pre-Covid
Brief: Billionaire investor Ray Dalio believes the workplace will never return to pre-pandemic conditions as flexibility and technology became the major driving forces in the new world. “The future of the workplace is going to be characterized by probably two things — customization and technology. We’ve been given a gift to be able to rethink what we are doing,” Dalio said Wednesday at CNBC’s @Work Summit. “I don’t think we are going to go back to the old world.” “It’s going to be an erratically different kind of work — what is employment? How will technology be replacing people? How will that be dealt with? How will the wealth gap be dealt with...there are going to be many, many changes over the next five years,” Dalio added.
