Slavery and human trafficking statement
Background
The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the “Act”) requires covered commercial organisations operating in the UK to report annually on the steps they have taken during the preceding financial year to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in their own businesses or in their supply chains.
This Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement (this “Statement”) has been produced by Coller Capital Limited (the “Company”), a private English company that is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and forms part of the Coller Capital group of companies (“Coller Capital” or “the firm”).
This Statement is made in accordance with section 54 of the Act and reports on the steps taken during the financial year ending 31st March 2023, and steps planned for the financial year to 31st March 2024, to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in the business or supply chains.
Organisational Structure and Supply Chains
Coller Capital is a specialist private equity secondaries firm which maintains offices in London, New York, Hong Kong, Beijing[1] and Seoul. The firm sponsors private funds (“Coller Funds”) that mainly acquire positions in third-party private equity and private credit funds from limited partners, and portfolios of unquoted companies from their corporate or institutional owners.
In 2021 we established new offices in Beijing, People’s Republic of China and Seoul, South Korea. While many of the same technology suppliers as are used across the wider firm are relevant to the newer offices and were included in the firm-wide supply chain assessment, other bespoke and local suppliers were also included.
Coller Capital carries on business in the UK through the Company, which acts as a non-discretionary adviser in respect of the Coller Funds.
As an investor in global private secondaries markets, our actions around slavery and human trafficking relate to:
- Ensuring slavery or human trafficking is not taking place in the Firm’s own supply chain.
The supply chain pertaining to the Company’s advisory business encompasses service providers that one would typically expect for an office-based financial services business, covering professional services, information technology, communications, building services/facilities, food, travel, office furniture, among other goods and services. We regard providers of these type of services to be generally of lower risk and believe there is therefore a lower overall risk of slavery and human trafficking in connection with our business and supply chain.
- Exercising our influence over managers of portfolio funds into which Coller Funds invest to encourage the adoption of measures to reduce slavery and human trafficking.
We do not regard our Funds (which are typically co-mingled funds or separately managed accounts, which invest into funds indirectly), as part of our supply chain. However, we adopt a responsible approach to investment; further information on our approach can be viewed here.
[1] The Beijing office is a non-UK subsidiary which we do not view as a part of the company’s “own business”. Nonetheless, we have included in our assessment, noting that this is a small office and its activities (like those of the rest of the group) are low risk from a modern slavery perspective.
Organisational Policies
Coller Capital is committed to preventing any form of slavery or human trafficking in its business and supply chains. The specific anti-slavery and human trafficking measures adopted by the firm form part of its overarching environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) framework, which is overseen by the firm’s ESG Committee and based on a written ESG policy.
Coller Capital’s ESG policy sets out the firm’s approach to responsible investment, in line with its status as a signatory to the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The firm has developed an Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking addendum to the ESG policy to serve as guidance for its implementation efforts under the Act.
This Statement and our ESG Policy have been approved by the Company’s board of directors.