TRANSFER OF CARBON FOOTPRINT AND REACTION OF INVESTORS TO THE ALLOCATION OF NON-ENVIRONMENTAL ASSETS OF THE COMPANY

In recent years, in order to improve environmental performance, public holdings are increasingly selling assets with a high carbon footprint to private companies with no environmental obligations. These transfers contribute to the deterioration of the environmental situation, while their negative perception by shareholders could serve as an effective mechanism to prevent them. The importance of ensuring high environmental quality and the unstudied reaction of investors to the allocation of non-environmental facilities determine the relevance of the work. The aim of the study is to establish the shareholders' perception of the spin-off or sale-off company assets with a high environmental footprint. The work is based on data from corporate press releases, stock quotes and their trading volumes on the financial portal Investing.com, as well as sustainability ratings calculated by the Expert RA agency. Methods: descriptive statistics and event analysis. The results of the study showed that the messages about the transfer of carbon footprint lead to decrease in interest in the shares and the growth of their prices, which, however, is not statistically significant. The theoretical novelty of the work is determined by the study of the previously unexamined issue of investors' perception of transactions of spin-offs and sales-offs non-environmental assets. It is determined that there is an institutional dysfunction of the stock exchange in the sphere of company environmental impact regulation: investor behavior does not prevent the transfer of carbon footprint, and their excessive pressure on managers to increase corporate responsibility even contributes to decisions on the allocation or sale of non-environmental assets. Recommendations to the authorities to adjust the norms of ownership transfer of assets with a high carbon footprint are of practical value; a
sustainability strategy for company managers, involving reconfiguration rather than restructuring, is proposed.