(From l. to r.:) Robert Scharfe, Julie Becker and Frank Wagener Handout photo

(From l. to r.:) Robert Scharfe, Julie Becker and Frank Wagener Handout photo

Scharfe had decided to retire, at the age of 67, as was announced at the end of last year.

Becker, deputy CEO since December 2019 and founder of the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX), left no doubt about the succession. It was a transition hailed as being “well secured and organised” by Frank Wagener, chairman of the board of directors.  

"We then wanted to give the signal that the transition would be done internally and that the person was chosen," he confirmed, specifying that the post of deputy CEO would disappear from the framework, as had been the case previously.

For his last annual results conference, Scharfe acknowledged it was an "intense year...marked by considerable growth in our activities, accelerated by the pandemic". He had to announce a result down 17%. At €11.2m, the 2020 profit returned to the level of 2018, after a good increase in 2019 (€13.5b).

This figure can be explained by exceptional items in the institution's investment portfolio and does not reflect operating income. "The good news is that revenues are up 5% [€51.2m] and EBITDA is also up 4% [€18.2m], despite the large investment in technology," Scharfe said.

At the end of 2020, LuxSE was trading 37,197 bonds, an increase of 3%. The amounts of these operations have increased by 25% to €1.4t. And among this set of transactions, LGX continues to grow.

“2020 was once again a record year for sustainable finance and for the LGX,” Becker confirmed. “But in the context of the pandemic, obligations with social objectives took precedence over those with environmental objectives.”

Over the year as a whole, LGX welcomed 407 new bonds with a total value of €186b. And the momentum is picking up even faster this year. During the first quarter of 2021, 163 new bonds were issued on LGX for a total value of €81.5b. "This is double the number of bonds issued for the same period a year earlier," the new CEOconfirmed.

For Becker, as for Scharfe, sustainable finance will be essential in the future. Already in 2020, LuxSE had launched a number of new services in the field, and on Wednesday also published its 2020 sustainability report. Becker has therefore set herself the first objective of convincing traditional bond issuers to join the platform linked to sustainable projects which are attracting an increasing number of investors.

“But to convince them, you have to be able to measure the impact. Hence the interest of investing in a startup like Tetrao specialising in data, ”she explained, thereby justifying the recent interest of LuxSE in young tech startups. 

“The world of finance will fundamentally change,” Scharfe confirmed. “In 40 years, I have seen a lot of changes, but this transition to sustainable finance is unheard of." 

He now anticipates devoting a significant portion of his time to this but added that he was “happy to leave the exchange in good shape in the capable hands of my successor Julie Becker”.