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Very good to see you, Christian

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and great to have the opportunity

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to discuss with you the importance of ESG.

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Before we talk about EQT's approach and philosophy to ESG,

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where do you see the private equity industry's stance

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on ESG today,

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and what do you think the sector as a whole

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can do in order to maintain or even enhance

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its license to operate?

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<v ->There are green shoots everywhere, I must say.</v>

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And if you think about

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where the private equity industry comes from,

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30, 40 years ago it was about financial engineering.

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Then it became operational improvement,

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then it became active ownership or even transformation.

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The next phase now is actually thinking a lot more about

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all stakeholders that are involved

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and really making a positive impact.

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<v ->Can you give us some insights on the role ESG plays</v>

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within EQT itself?

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<v ->I like to give the example</v>

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you have two different companies that are exactly the same.

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Let's say two consulting companies, right?

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And you can imagine one of them has the possibility

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to become much more sustainable than the other.

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Which one in five to ten years will attract

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or have attracted and continue to attract the best people,

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have the best relationship with regulators,

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have the best brand,

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have the most interest from society,

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and probably also even better customer relationships?

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We think it's the more sustainable one.

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And as an investor,

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which of those two consulting firms

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would I then like to invest in?

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It's obvious I want to invest in this one.

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So we also think it's good business.

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<v ->Do you have a couple of examples where EQT's ESG</v>

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commitment was really driving the value creation agenda?

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<v ->We can find ESG or sustainability thinking</v>

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in all of our investments, I would say.

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The one that's almost easiest to start with

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is a company called Anticimex.

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Anticimex we bought in 2012 or so.

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It was a small regional pest control player.

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Now we still own it,

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and it's becoming one of the world leaders in pest control.

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And you might say, "Pest control?

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That's not sustainable."

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But what we're doing with that company

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is actually we're digitizing it,

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and we're making it much more sustainable

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in terms of working practices

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and also the kind of chemicals, et cetera they use.

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And then we have an infrastructure.

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For example, we have GETEC

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which is an energy services company in Germany,

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where you're from.

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And there we're transitioning all of the energy

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to renewables.

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And we're taking lots of add-on acquisitions

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of let's say more old-fashioned companies

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and bringing them up into the modern future.

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<v ->If we look at other companies</v>

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that are now starting to push the ESG agenda

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but stopping short of creating impact,

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your portfolio companies seem to have actually achieved

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that impact.

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What advice would you give to CEOs

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that have started on the ESG journey

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but not seeing that impact yet?

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<v ->I almost go back to that example of the two companies.</v>

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Think about it.

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Why should I do this?

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Well, it's good for the world and it's good for my business.

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And those two things are gonna make my company

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outperform the others.

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I think that's what you got to do.

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<v ->Sounds amazing.</v>

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And it also sounds like you and the company and EQT

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have already come such a long way,

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and you've pioneered the ESG topic

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in the private equity world.

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What are the initiatives that you're currently working on

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in order to even more increase your ESG commitments?

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<v ->We still have plenty of improvements to make.</v>

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One of those improvements is setting crystal clear-goals.

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And those goals this year are focus on diversity

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and focus on environment.

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Those are, the kind of, the two axes.

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And we're trying to simplify it again,

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so just two axes.

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So on diversity internally, EQT this year,

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we're hiring 65% females. That's our target

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because it's gender diversity

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where our industry is particularly weak.

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And we have broader diversity topics that are also important

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but that's the big one.

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We've asked all of our service providers, including you guys

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to have at least 25% of the other gender in every team.

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And that goes for investment banks, accounting firms,

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everybody we work with.

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That's actually having a very big impact

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because it's rolling out through

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all the people that we work with across the world.

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On the energy side, EQT is either if all of our offices

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aren't already on renewable energy,

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they're making the transition

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and we're doing the same in our companies.

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So every single company,

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no matter if they have zero renewable energy today,

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or a hundred percent renewable energy,

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they need to take the next step whatever that is.

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<v ->It's fantastic.</v>

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Thanks a lot Christian for taking the time.

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Really amazing to see how you put your purpose

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into practice.

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<v ->Thank you, Michael.</v>

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Good to see you.