BIMB Investment Management Berhad (BIMB) launched the BIMB ESG Sukuk Fund,which targets to achieve RM150 million in a year for the fund.

Approved under the Sustainable Responsible Investing (SRI) guidelines, this is the world’s first environmental, social and governance (ESG) Sukuk fund and the first Shariah Sukuk Fund in Malaysia.

The fund is the first fund of its kind in the world that integrates the principles of ESG criteria into the investment portfolio strategy to determine company performance to select best performing companies in both financial and non-financial performance, with respect to sukuk return and credit risk profile.

“Sustainable and socially responsible investing remains a huge area of opportunity to be tapped on.

“The industry and investors share their biggest questions in terms of return investments.” said BIMB Investment chairman Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff.

He also added that thousands of empirical studies and meta studies conducted in recent years show positive and sustainable impact on companies’ long-term financial success, hence positive returns to investors in the long run.

“The fund offers corporate and retail investors a potential stable annual income stream and an opportunity for capital appreciation over the medium to long term by investing in local and global sukuk.” said BIMB Investment chief executive officer Najmuddin Mohd Lutfi.

He also added that the sustainability analysis of each company the fund invests in would be made using UK-based Arabesque Asset Management Holding Ltd’s proprietary S-ray machine learning and big data technology screening system.

The system is the first of its kind in the world to assess a company’s ESG score on a daily basis.

It is offered for subscription in the ringgit, US dollar and Singapore dollar at 0.25 cents per unit during the initial offer period from Aug 1 until 21.

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