Commerz Real has created a new Impact Investment division and named a new Head of Sustainability. The asset manager intends to place its focus to a greater degree than in the past on capital investments whose returns are not measured solely in terms of economic success, but also with a view to their positive impact on society and the environment.
Tobias Huzarski (37) is the head of the newly-created Impact Investment division at Commerz Real. With this appointment, the asset manager intends to place its focus to a greater degree than in the past on capital investments whose returns are not measured solely in terms of economic success, but also with a view to their positive impact on society and the environment. “More and more investors would not only like to earn money but also do something good with their investment,” is how Dr. Andreas Muschter, the Chief Executive Officer of Commerz Real, explains the new strategy. “As an established asset manager for real assets, we intend to meet this need and assume responsibility.”
It is planned to develop a portfolio with a focus on the so-called “ecological and social return”. This can encompass funds for institutional and private investors oriented to the UN sustainable development goals, for example. Above all, it is intended to invest in renewable energies to a greater extent.
“Impact Investment will network the core areas of sustainability, digitalisation and real assets in a consistent and creative manner. We will develop solutions that offer investors access to conservative and sustainable investments, and in doing so attain positive ecological, social and civil outcomes,” said Tobias Huzarski, Head of the newly-created Impact Investment division.
“Impact Investment will network the core areas of sustainability, digitalisation and real assets in a consistent and creative manner. We will develop solutions that offer investors access to conservative and sustainable investments, and in doing so attain positive ecological, social and civil outcomes,” explains Huzarski, who before joining Commerz Real co-founded a private platform which invests in proptechs. Prior to this, he had worked at Man Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in the areas Private Equity and Real Estate Investments.
Huzarski will collaborate closely with the new Head of Sustainability at Commerz Real, Viola Joncic (33). As the interface between the specialist areas, together with Huzarski she will develop and implement a sustainability strategy. This also includes the performance of current and future investments being analysed more closely with a view to ESG criteria (ESG = environmental, social and governance) than has been the case to date. Joncic was most recently Manager of Sustainability Services at the accounting organisation Deloitte, where she headed consulting projects for handling the topic of social and ecological sustainability and was responsible for sustainability report audits.
In the implementation of the new strategy, Commerz Real can build on its achievements to date. Thus it already manages 50 brownfield solar power plants with a nominal capacity of 380 megawatts and twelve onshore wind farms with a nominal capacity of about 171 megawatts. In addition, together with Wertgrund Immobilien, the open-ended real estate fund hausInvest has been investing since 2019 in affordable residential property, and in the medium-term plans to invest about 10 to 20 per cent of its current volume of nearly 16 billion euros in this segment. Moreover, Commerz Real holds a stake in Arabesque S-Ray, a leading global provider of sustainability data, as a strategic partner for real assets.
