Kuala Lumpur, 11th May 2021 – BIMB Investment Management Berhad (BIMB Investment), has declared income distribution for its BIMB-Arabesque i Global Dividend Fund 1 (BiGDF1) for the financial year ended 31 March 2021 as follows:

BIMB Investment’s Chairman, Mohamed Ridza Mohamed Abdulla, said, “We would like to thank our investors for their continuous support and trust in our BiGDF1. Their confidence has resulted in a strong performance earning an  income distribution of 3.40 sen/cent per unit for its RM Class and USD Class; and 3.30 sen/cent per unit for RM Hedged Class and SGD Class respectively.”

He adds, “BIMB Investment has partnered with a global asset management firm, Arabesque Asset Management Ltd (Arabesque), to bring added value to our investors. The Target Fund’s investment strategy uniquely combines Shariah-complianct, sustainability values, a sophisticated fundamental stock selection process,  a state-of-the-art risk and investment management technology.”

Mohamed Ridza further adds, “Without a doubt, ESG funds will become the mainstream of investing, and companies who pay careful attention to ESG factors will outperform and be more resilient in the long run. The Target Fund leverages the Arabesque S-Ray Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) scores to analyse companies from a sustainability perspective. We believe investors can use this ESG screening approach to reduce portfolio risks and generate performance.”

The income distribution yield of the Fund is 7.89% for the RM Class, 7.93% for the RM Hedged Class, 7.88% for the SGD Class, and 7.88% for the USD Class which outperformed its benchmark target of 6.0% for the fifth year consecutively. It is higher than last year’s income distribution yield of 6.36% for the RM Class, 6.0% for the RM Hedged Class, 6.0% for the SGD Class, and 6.0% for the USD Class. 

The investment process of BiGDF1 removes human biases and intuition to construct the best combination of stocks from a universe of 77,000 global listed companies to form a portfolio of up to 100 stocks daily by using more than 1,600 selection criteria that process more than 100 billion data points. The Fund rebalances its portfolio daily between equity and cash for sustainable risk-adjusted investment returns. The systematic and rules-based quantitative investment approaches also consider ESG to invest in companies with sustainable financial futures. 

The Target Fund’s quantitative risk and investment management technology is owned exclusively by Arabesque based on the leading academic research into the behaviour of stock returns, Conditional Value at Risk (CVar) portfolio optimization, and behavioural finance. 

The Fund, first introduced in November 2015, is the largest global equity Shariah Global Equity Fund in Malaysia with more than RM700 million in fund size. The Fund was also awarded BEST ESG Equity Fund 2020 by The Asset Islamic Finance Awards 2020. 

The Fund gives investors access to investments in Shariah-compliant global equities. The Fund invests a minimum of 90% of the Fund’s NAV into the Target Fund and a maximum of 10% of the Fund’s NAV into Islamic fixed deposits, Islamic money market instruments, and/or Islamic liquid markets. The minimum investment amount is RM500, SGD500, or USD500.

BIMB Investment’s Chief Executive Officer, Najmuddin Mohd Lutfi, said, “Through BiGDF1, funds management is changing with a financial technology solution that constructs the investment portfolio for capital growth while managing market volatility, analysing data, and making intuition-free decisions. BiGDF1 integrates Shariah values and ESG principles while leveraging artificial intelligence technology to deliver sustainable performance and potentialy superior risk-return profile, as shown in the consistently stellar performance of the dividend yields for the fifth year in a row.

In recent years, shareholders have suffered substantial losses following ESG risk events. Aside from COVID-19, the negative environmental and social impacts on oil spills, factory waste dumping, increased carbon emissions, and unsafe products can be fatal, resulting in severe costs to shareholders. Additionally, poor governance and accounting controls can undermine the success of great businesses characterised by sustainable, competitive advantages and long-term growth prospects. We believe that by incorporating in-depth ESG considerations, we can mitigate these risks.”

He continues, “Sustainable and socially responsible investing remains a huge area of opportunity to tap on, and COVID-19 will accelerate the agenda of sustainable investing. Studies conducted in recent years show that positive and sustainable impact on companies’ long-term financial success, hence resulting in positive returns to investors in the long run.”

BIMB Investment is the only bank-backed Islamic Asset Manager in Southeast Asia to be the signatory of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI).

For more information about the Fund, please contact 1-800-88-1196 or visit www.bimbinvestment.com.my

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