Founded and still headed today by CEO Lorenzo Vangelisti, Valeur Group in an independent business with significant and extensive experience in asset management, advisory, trading, structuring of tailor-made investment funds, and real estate services. The Group has recently announced its subscription to the Wildlife Conservation Bond, financial instrument issued by the World Bank to defend the endangered species of black rhinos and protect the ecosystem in South Africa.
Lorenzo Vangelisti: the Wildlife Conservation Bond subscribed by Valeur Group
Valeur Group reinforces its commitment to humanitarian and animals’ welfare objectives, as CEO Lorenzo Vangelisti emphasized. The firm specialized in asset management and trading services has recently announced it had subscribed to the World Bank’s Wildlife Conservation Bond. Also known as “Rhino Impact Bond”, it is a financial instrument conceived to support black rhinos and local communities in two natural reserves in South Africa, namely the Addo Elephant National Park and the Great Fish River Nature Reserve. “The preservation of rhinos can contribute to the defense of biodiversity and at the same time can promote employment in local communities through the creation of jobs needed to carry out this important conservation project”, the CEO explained commenting on the operation. Lorenzo Vangelisti also added that “the decision to invest in Rhino Impact Bonds strengthens our commitment to pursuing humanitarian and animals’ welfare objectives, which are the core goals of our non-profit organization Valeur Foundation”. Indeed, the Wildlife Conservation Bond aims to achieve the twofold result of defending the endangered species of black rhinos while protecting the entire ecosystem and the local communities in South Africa.
Lorenzo Vangelisti: the approach adopted by the “Rhino Impact Bond”
The Wildlife Conservation Bond is a fixed income instrument created for the conservation of a particular endangered species, the first-of-its-kind that channels investments to achieve conservation outcomes. As Lorenzo Vangelisti emphasized, it is an innovative financial instrument that follows an “outcome payment model”, which pays returns to its investors in relation to the growth rates of black rhinos in the two natural reserves in South Africa. The Wildlife Conservation Bond consists of a 5-year loan of 150 million dollars and supports the protection of a critically endangered species: according to estimates, the population of black rhinos has in fact drastically decreased in the last 50 years, from 65’000 in the 1970s to the current 2’600. This is due to poaching linked to the international trade in rhino horns, as well as to the loss and fragmentation of the habitat. In order to counteract this decrease, the payment model of the “Rhino Impact Bond” links the growth rates of black rhinos to the returns paid to investors. This financial instrument also aims to contribute directly to biodiversity, in addition to bringing jobs to local communities through the creation of conservation-related employment. It is no coincidence that Valeur Group decided to invest in it, as the Wildlife Conservation Bond’s approach is in line with the firm’s commitment to pursuing humanitarian and animals’ welfare objectives. For years now, the Group headed by Lorenzo Vangelisti has been carrying out several projects linked to social issues and, to this end, the non-profit organization Valeur Foundation was established.
