Impact Investment

What is an Impact Investment?

Impact Investments – those investments which seek both a financial return and a positive measurable social and/or environmental impact. Within the BayTrust portfolio we expect a return reflective of the underlying risk within the investment and are not seeking concessionary returns with the impact primarily to be located within the BOP region.

Why is BayTrust interested in Impact Investing?

BayTrust’s purpose is to accelerate bold and meaningful change, assisting BOP communities and our environment to flourish. BayTrust operates a ~$260m globally diversified investment portfolio with considerable assets that are held on behalf of the community. As not all issues can be addressed through our grants programme, BayTrust remains committed to utilising impact investments as a tool to create impact and address areas of need in our community.

Investing – an impact investment is not a grant. Any investments considered will need to demonstrate how the funds will be repaid.

Intention – the intention to create impact needs to be embedded into the investment, not a by-product.

Measurable - the impact needs to be identifiable and measurable for us to assess, manage and monitor the effect of the investment and compare it with other opportunities

Social or environmental impacts – BayTrust is interested in investing where the impact created is targeted towards three areas:

Improving housing conditions for those living in sub-standard or inadequate housing;

Generating employment opportunities that create meaningful, sustainable employment especially in areas where there has been systemic unemployment or addressing the recession effects;

Addressing environmental or climate change issues.

Financial returns – the investment needs to return an appropriate risk-adjusted return.

Amount of Investment

BayTrust has allocated up to 15% of its total investment base of ~$260m to impact investing. Currently, this means around $39m allocated with ~$32m already committed to investments providing impact within the Bay of Plenty.

BayTrust usually only commits up to $2.5m into any one venture, however the total commitment depends on the nature of the investment and security over the assets.

Supporting smaller social enterprises

BayTrust has allocated an additional $1m to a scheme that will specifically support smaller social enterprises providing social or environmental benefits in the BayTrust region. This allocation will consider investments between $50k and $250k. The process will be more fluid than for higher levels of investment, with the aim of a quick response, more acceptance of risk and other forms of assistance may be considered to support the enterprise alongside the investment.

Current Investments

A sample of some of our investments:

Purpose Capital - https://www.purposecapital.co.nz/ BayTrust has invested in Purpose Capital as one of the founding investors. Purpose Capital Impact Fund is an Impact Investment Fund seeking to create impact in the areas of affordable housing, environmental degradation, climate change and inequality.

Tauranga Community Housing Trust – https://tcht.co is a registered Community Housing Provider that provides housing and related services to individuals and whanau with a special focus on disability and older people.

YouOwn – https://youown.co.nz/ provides a shared ownership product, basically a loan that helps home buyers that lack a deposit but can afford repayments get into their own home.

Bay of Plenty Housing Equity Fund (BOP HEF) - https://www.bophef.nz/ was initiated by BayTrust and other BOP investors to address housing issues across the BOP. The fund launched in early 2024 and is actively working with communities and organisations to invest in housing solutions where government and/or developers are not providing solutions.

For more information on this, please contact: