Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has partnered with leading global ESG research provider ‘Sustainalytics’ for ESG scores and ratings which will be the filter for defining the investment universe. According to the press release, each company will be scored on 3 pillars of ESG and non-conforming sectors will be excluded. This will further be screened basis fundamental analysis and financial parameters with a combination of top-down and bottom-up approach. The fund will be market cap agnostic.
“Environment, Social and Governance factors, or ESG have become increasingly important parameters of investment decisions worldwide, beyond the traditional financial factors. This has gained further importance after Covid-19, an insight that also our survey across 1600 plus respondents shows. The majority of respondents felt their attitude towards ESG in investment decision making had changed after the pandemic,” A. Balasubramanian, MD & CEO, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC said. He added that, “This is an important shift in mindset. ESG concept is at a very nascent stage in India and is widely unexplored, though it’s an established theme globally. With the Indian Government too emphasising its ESG focus recently and global flows into ESG focused sectors and companies seeing consistent increase, there is potential for this theme to play out secularly”.
The minimum application amount for this fund is Rs.500/- and in multiples of Re. 1/- thereafter, during the New Fund Offer period. Investors can come into this fund both in the SIP or Lumpsum route. The fund house said that the portfolio looks to benefit from rising flows into ESG compliant companies which increases the possibility of re-rating and augurs well for longer term market performance.
