A small investment trust is set to become the first firm to list in London with an all-female board, while highlighting the sore lack of women-led initial public offerings.
Atrato Onsite Energy said Monday it is looking to raise 150 million pounds ($207 million) in a London listing. The trust, focused on installing solar panels on large commercial buildings, will exceed the U.K.’s voluntary target of 33% female representation on company boards.
“It wasn’t a purposeful decision to go all female, but what I think is really exciting is that we’ve now got the quality and capability in women in the industry to make an all-female board,” said Atrato’s Chair Juliet Davenport, who also founded renewable energy firm Good Energy Group Plc.
While a push for more diverse corporate boards is gaining traction, very few companies go public with women at the helm. Only three of London’s 40 biggest IPOs this year have a female chief executive officer, including Poppy Gustafsson at Darktrace Plc, Sara Murray at Big Technologies Plc and Romi Savova at PensionBee Group Plc.
Wall Street banks are also ramping up efforts to improve representation among listing candidates. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., one of the world’s biggest IPO underwriters, last year said it will no longer take a company public in the U.S. and Europe if it lacks a director who is either female or from a diverse background.
Though progress is being made, there is a long way to go. An Ernst & Young-sponsored report by the Cranfield School of Management this month showed the proportion of women on FTSE 100 boards was at an all-time high, but still with too few female executives in top roles.
Davenport will be joined on Atrato’s board by Marlene Wood, chair of the audit committee, and non-executive director Faye Goss. They will work with Managing Director Gurpreet Gujral.
© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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