BIMB Investment targets RM100 million for its first syariah equity fund

KUALA LUMPUR: BIMB Investment Management Bhd (BIMB Investment) targets to achieve more than RM100 million from its newly launched BIMB-Arabesque ValueCAP Malaysia Syariah-ESG Equity Fund, the first syariah equity fund in the country.

The fund, in collaboration with Arabesque Asset Management Holding Ltd and ValueCAP Sdn Bhd, will be investing in more than 100 syariah-compliant companies listed on Bursa Malaysia.

BIMB Investment chief executive officer Najmuddin Mohd Lutfi said the investments will also be based on the companies’ financial and sustainability performance.

”As of now, ValueCAP has put in RM50 million. We hope more investors will be part of the fund especially government- linked corporations, pension funds as well as universities that can only invest in the country,” he said in a press conference after the launch of the fund yesterday.

The minimum subscription starts at RM100,000.

He added that the sustainability analysis of each company will use Arabesque’s machine learning and big data technology screening, S-ray, which analyses the performance of the companies according to the United Nations Global Compact normative principles of human rights, labour rights, environment and anticorruption.

“The robust and deep environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis provides insights and a better understanding of a company’s management quality and its positioning for long-term success,” he said.

The S-ray, the first tool of its kind in the world, assesses companies’ ESG scores daily.

Meanwhile, BIMB Investment chairman Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff said that Malaysia has emerged as the largest Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) market in Asia except Japan and second in the world in the Islamic fund market with about 29 per cent market share worth US$56 billion of global asset under management.

“With the rapid growth of the SRI market segment globally, Malaysia’s capital market has a huge opportunity to lead the region with SRI benefiting this through good positioning and strong investment fundamentals in place. — Bernama