SIO was delighted to co-host our – full-house – Impact Gathering & Christmas Apero together with INOKS Capital S.A. last week in Zurich. The discussion focused on how alternativeinvestments, realassets and impact strategies are converging around sustainable food and agriculture, driven by foodsecurity, climate pressures and changing investor expectations.
Nicolas Laporte, mentioned that private debt is becoming a mainstream asset class, increasingly used as a proxy for fixed income in diversified portfolios. The universe of ESG and impact managers remains limited, requiring pragmatic allocation choices and selective arbitrage. Interest in ESG and impact strategies is steadily increasing, especially among younger private banking clients, where sustainability is becoming a baseline expectation.
Rosa Sangiorgio, mentioned that Switzerland faces a defining choice: to be remembered as the place that protected yesterday’s wealth, or as the place that helped design the financial system for tomorrow. Impact investing is not a niche; it is good risk management in a world where climate, health and social tensions are now priced.
Mirjam Garzon, stated that the impact investing community continues to grow fast each year, while methodological challenges around definitions and measurement remain. Sustainable food and agriculture stand out as one of the most important and widely supported themes across the global impact community.
Nabil Marc ABDUL-MASSIH, presented short-term, asset-backed food chain financing in developing economies, mentioning it usually carries lower risk than perceived when properly structured and monitored, while delivering tangible local impact including job creation and women empowerment. In Europe, a significant “missing middle” financing gap exists for agri-food SMEs, creating an attractive private debt opportunity. aligned with the EU’s food security agenda.
Yullie (Panagiota) Matsouka mentioned that impact investments increasingly deliver on investor expectations, often more consistently than traditional strategies. They are fundamentally real-economy investments and do not carry higher risk by default.
Kostis A. Tselenis highlighted clear macro trends: impact strategies are becoming a structural allocation in institutional portfolios, not a niche. Evergreen structures, particularly in private debt, are gaining momentum as investors seek income, resilience and real-asset exposure. The traditional narrative of impact versus returns is increasingly obsolete.
Thank you to all speakers and participants for a thoughtful, investor-driven discussion!