Blue Orca Capital’s Soren Aandahl has joined Global PSSL, applying his short activist expertise to the Global PSSL voluntary ESG Standard on Short Activism.
Global Principles for Sustainable Securities Lending (Global PSSL) founder and CEO Radek Stech says Aandahl is a “premier short activist investor with a proven track record of successful investments in the US, Asia and Australia, so we’re delighted to have his knowledge and experience on board”.
Discussing the Global PSSL voluntary ESG Standard on Short Activism with Stech, Aandahl said: “You’ve [Stech] formed Global PSSL as a non-profit initiative to bring together a variety of voices from the broader community of practitioners, thought leaders, regulators and international organisations.
“Rather than just sketch out a list of rules or a code of conduct through lobby groups, you seek to build a new impartial platform, bring key stakeholders together, learn from them and jointly figure out solutions as the markets themselves evolve. In this respect, what you’re doing is unique.”
The Global PSSL unveiled the first-of-its-kind voluntary ESG standard on short activism in March and was developed over six months in collaboration with prominent short activists such as Carson Block of Muddy Waters Capital, Gabriel Grego of Quintessential Capital Management, and Anne Stevenson-Yang of J Capital Research.
Instances of greenwashing, social washing, or governance failure are what activist short sellers may look for during their research, Stech says, and Global PSSL offers a voluntary mechanism that adds a new ESG layer to existing due diligence, encouraging people to feed their experiences back and further develop the initiative.
