Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) theme is catching on with Indian asset managers. The latest to join the bandwagon is Axis Mutual Fund. The fund house is launching its Axis ESG Fund on January 22, 2020 which closes for subscription on February 5, 2020.
The fund house will use a proprietary, forward-looking and dynamic view of ESG based on qualitative assessment of each company. It will leverage the global best practices related to ESG from its sponsor Schroders. The companies will be evaluated based on standardized framework that uses data as well as analyst assessments.
The scheme will exclude sectors/themes that are deemed harmful from a societal perspective (For e.g. exclude tobacco, liquor, gambling stocks). The fund will then allocate based on a qualitative ESG review of each company complementing its existing fundamentals based investment process.
A minimum 80% of the portfolio will be in stocks that rate highly on Axis MF's internal ESG review. The fund will also take selective allocations based on improving growth trend. The fund will invest up to 30% directly in overseas securities focused on developed markets with high level of ESG maturity.
Jinesh Gopani, Head Equity, and Hitesh Das, Fund Manager - Foreign Securities, at Axis Asset Management Company will be managing this fund.
