Thematic Report: Covid-19 Impact Survey

Back in March this year, at the start of the Covid Crisis and lockdown, we sent out a survey to the companies we invest in to see how they were dealing with all the challenges. We reported back on our initial findings in a blog on April 2th (view it here) . In that blog, we promised to report back on our findings once the survey closed. We’re pleased to say that we have now published a stand-alone report which details the findings of the survey.

View the report here: Covid-19 Impact Survey Report

Just to remind you; we wanted to find out how the companies we invest in were surviving financially and if, under duress, they were sticking to their ESG commitments. The survey was open for several weeks and, during that bewildering period, we sensed that views were changing from a sense of panic and of battening down the hatches in late March and early April, to a more considered approach as the weeks went by. What is fascinating about the survey is that it was very much a snapshot of a particular company on a particular day; this came through especially strongly in the freeform comments, over 280 of them, which we received. Many companies were doing really amazing things to help their employees and the wider community.

We definitely got a lot out of the survey and we plan to do a follow up later in the year, when we hope to gather a more considered view of the crisis from the directors of the companies we own. In the meantime, enjoy reading the report.