For example, only this week numbers from Bloomberg New Energy Finance showed that the sustainable debt market which includes green bonds and social bonds grew 29 per cent to a record $US732 billion in 2020. In 2013, the sustainable debt market was worth just $US26.6 billion a year.
It was also reported this week that Prince Charles had linked up with banking giant HSBC and Australian green finance guruMartijn Wilder’s firm Pollination to bring the novel asset class of “natural capital” into the investment mainstream.
Xpansiv chief executive Joe Madden believes “ESG-based commodities are an entirely new asset class”.Â
Xpansiv has four business units, including XMarkets which enables trading of renewable energy, carbon offsets, water and the like on spot markets and XSignals, which attaches data to the traded commodities to provide more detail on what has gone into creating them.
For example, data on XSignals could paint a picture of how much water and fertiliser was required to produce a tonne of wheat, to provide a clearer picture of the commodity’s underlying cost and value.
The company’s main point of difference to other commodity spot exchanges is this ESG-type focus.
We believe ESG-based commodities are an entirely new asset class, and the markets where they trade must scale exponentially to meet climate-mitigation targets pledged by governments, companies, and entire industries,” Xpansiv chief executive Joe Madden said.
Mr Madden said Xpansiv’s existing investor base which includes S&P Global and Sydney-based fund manager Caledonia’s Will Vicars was “supportive of the plan to list on the ASX in 2021″.
The pre-IPO funding round was led by Shaw and Partners and was first revealed by The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column in December last year.
At that time, investors were told that Xpansiv had traded 30,000 lots in November, which was a 60 per cent increase on its previous record month. November’s trade included 119,000 renewable energy credits, 5.79 million tonnes of carbon offsets and 31,376 megalitres of water.
The capital will be used to fund growth initiatives that continue to strategically position Xpansiv for success, Mr Madden said.
Australian-based chief commercial officer Ben Stuart said a local listing would help drive the company’s growth ambitions.
Were focused on a strategic path to advance our market position and accelerate the growth of commodity products on our exchange platform,” he said.
