Responsible investing at Apax

Our approach to sustainability

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We apply a simple and pragmatic approach to sustainability throughout the life of investments.

Driven by materiality.

Advanced by Apax.

Executed by management.

Pre deal

  • Materiality screening
  • Sustainability & compliance due diligence
  • Red-flag & value-creation levers

Ownership

  • Apax Operational Excellence Practice (OEP) and the Apax Intelligence Platform (AIP) onboarding1
  • Annual sustainability survey (180+ data points)
  • Support portfolio companies with inbound stakeholder requests
  • Active engagement on material sustainability topics

Exit

  • Exit readiness support on ad hoc basis, including: (1) reviewing risks & opportunities for potential buyers (2) reporting company-specific progress on material KPIs and (3) developing sustainability narrative, where applicable

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Governance & accountability

Executive Committee

Sustainability Committee

Sustainability Team

Deal Team

Management & Board

Who does what

  • The Executive Committee (Exec Comm) has ultimate oversight of firm sustainability and portfolio engagement strategy
  • The Sustainability Committee is comprised of 10 members from across the firm and reviews all Apax and portfolio initiatives, escalating material issues to Exec Comm, when relevant, and helping guide priorities.
  • The Sustainability Team leads initiatives at the portfolio including developing and reviewing annual and due diligence questionnaires, facilitating emissions measurement and decarbonisation, and reporting to investors and regulators.
  • Deal teams conduct diligence, integrate material sustainability factors pre-investment and engage the Sustainability Team and management to identify and monitor key risks and opportunities.
  • Management teams & Boards bear ultimate responsibility (and credit) for implementation and performance, reporting to their boards and to Apax via the annual survey.

When and how

  • Bi-weekly: Sustainability Team meets to discuss pipeline, inbounds, status of commitments and sustainability engagement across the portfolio
  • Monthly: Sustainability Committee meets, reviews & escalates firm and portfolio matters as needed
  • Annually: Portfolio sustainability survey (180+ data points) sent to portfolio companies, submissions reviewed by Sustainability Team and key findings published in internal and external dashboards
  • Event-driven: Targeted OEP support for inbound requests, material incidents, and/or new initiatives (e.g., emissions measurement, decarbonisation, regulatory readiness)
  • Disclosure: Apax Sustainability Report, TCFD report (including scenario analysis and financed emissions), SFDR reporting, PMDR-aligned reporting to begin in 2025

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Engagement

Apax has developed three programmes to drive climate, cyber and governance engagement with portfolio companies.

Carbon & Climate

  • Led by Apax's Head of Climate & Portfolio Sustainability with dedicated support from third party consultant
  • Comprehensive emissions measurement program launched in 2021; new and existing portfolio companies offered to participate
  • Targeted decarbonisation workshops launched summer of 2025, with further roll out planned for 2026

portfolio companies completed 10-12 week emissions measurement programme2

Cybersecurity

  • Led by the Apax OEP Cyber Team
  • Focus areas include: (1) baselining portfolio companies against standardised Apax security requirements (2) annual monitoring of cyber controls and risks and (3) providing specialised service and support directly and through our partner ecosystem
  • Cybersecurity Community (comprised of security leads across the portfolio) meets quarterly and engages through a dedicated channel to share challenges, priorities and best practices

portfolio companies completed latest Apax cybersecurity assessment

Anti-Bribery & Corruption

  • Led by the Apax Compliance Team with dedicated support from external legal counsel
  • Support portfolio companies to adopt and implement anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies, procedures and training

portfolio companies received Apax support on governance frameworks and policies3

Collaboration networks

A UN-supported global network of investors that commit to six principles to incorporate ESG factors into investment and ownership practices.

Initiative Climat International (iCI) is a global network of private-markets investors committed to collaborating on measuring, managing and reducing carbon emissions and climate risk across their portfolios.

The Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Private Equity Task Force brings together leading private equity firms to identify ways that the industry can accelerate progress towards a more sustainable future.

The Responsible Investment Advisory Group assists the BVCA in being able to provide practical advice to its members to help them incorporate ESG considerations into their business decisions.

A not-for-profit network aiming to increase the visibility, retention and progression of women in private equity and venture capital through data, mentoring and advocacy.

  1. Includes dedicated Apax led programmes covering CO2 measurement and decarbonisation, cybersecurity and anti-bribery and anti-corrruption.
  2. 10-12 weeks represents average duration of baseline exercise. Total excludes Apax funds' portfolio companies measuring emissions independently.
  3. Includes inbound and/or outbound engagement by the Apax Compliance Team with portfolio companies.