With combined backgrounds in Environmental Biology, Environmental Technology and Finance, Aviva Investors’ Rick Stathers and Jaime Ramos Martin share their perspectives on how investors can go beyond low carbon investing to build resilience into portfolios.

How can investors navigate global equity markets during this volatile period? What does this mean for globalisation and for long-term investors? With a unique background in both immunovirology and finance, Capital Group’s Jonathan Knowles will share his perspectives on the financial markets in the context of COVID-19 as well as in the longer term.

This investor roundtable will take stock of how asset owners implement their engagement strategies as part of their ESG approach, in fulfiling their fiduciary responsibilities to member and stakeholders.

The volatility in the equity markets in recent years, coupled with the expected low yields of bonds in the long term, have seen increasing allocations to real assets in general, with infrastructure a key beneficiary of the inflows. However with markets severely disrupted by COVID-19, it is perhaps timely to evaluate the defensiveness of infrastructure.

The Australian pension industry is still in its early stages of developing retirement solutions and we hope the current crisis is only a temporary setback. This investor roundtable will discuss and evaluate the investment approaches underpinning a robust retirement strategy.

The aftermath of the global financial crisis has seen banks retreating from the lending market, paving the way for private funds to fill the vacuum. Coupled with investors’ search for yield beyond traditional fixed income as well as current high valuation of equities, the demand for private credit has surged.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has clearly changed how people live, work and shop and socialise. Some of the changed lifestyle and behaviour are expected to carry on into the post pandemic era, impacting the demand for different types of space.

The aggressive actions by governments around the world, utilising the dual force of fiscal and monetary policies, have severely distorted the markets. This compounds the difficulties that investors face in constructing resilient portfolios for the long term. Perhaps a new playbook is required.

An investor roundtable to evaluate the role of risk mitigation strategies, particularly their contribution to protecting the portfolio during the coronavirus-induced financial crisis.

Historically, emerging market debt has been somewhat mis-understood and sometimes frowned upon, given its patchy boom and busts over the decades. What is the role of EMD in the portfolio? Can it be considered a separate asset class with unique factors, notwithstanding constant debates on the geographical definition of emerging markets?