Krungsri Asset Management offers KFTHAIESG - growth opportunity from sustainable ESG stocks. IPO: 8-18 December 2023; Minimum investment: 500 Baht.

  
Mrs. Supaporn Leenabanchong, Managing Director, Krungsri Asset Management Company Limited (Krungsri Asset Management) revealed “Krungsri Asset Management is going to launch the IPO of a new tax saving fund, a "Thai ESG Fund” under the name of Krungsri Enhanced SET Thailand ESG Fund (KFTHAIESG), with a policy to focus investing in constituent stocks of SETESG Index of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). The Fund applies a combined investment strategy of passive and active management approach, with 90% of the portfolio tracing the performance of the SETESG Index and another 10% aiming to generate excess returns from active investment. The investment units of the Fund are available in two share classes, namely, KFTHAIESGA with no dividend policy and KFTHAIESGD with a dividend policy.”

“The investment amount in KFTHAIESG is separated from the tax deduction amount of the investment in SSFs/RMFs and other retirement investments. Therefore, investors who have already fully invested in SSFs/RMFs for tax deduction privilege can invest more in KFTHAIESG to enjoy the tax benefit provided that the investment amount is not exceeding 30% of assessable income and not exceeding 100,000 Baht per year and the holding period is 8 years from the date of investment.” 

“Krungsri Asset Management sees that now is a good opportunity to gradually invest in Thai stocks since the Thai stock market is improving on the back of the Government’s economic stimulus measures, economic recovery of Thailand’s major trading partners, gradual reduction of policy rates by global central banks, and improving trends of corporate performance. Especially, investing in ESG stocks has gained increasing popularity among investors.”

“Thailand has placed more importance on the ESG issue as evidenced by the ongoing rising trends of investment allocation in ESG focused organizations. The Government and business sectors are also gearing towards ESG investing. In addition, global leading institutions also assign ESG scores to several funds such as Morningstar Sustainability rating, MSCI ESG fund, and so on.”
“According to the information of the SET as at the end of October 2023, there were 115 companies included in the SETTHSI Index (before the index name was changed to SETESG Index on 6 November 2023), capturing approximately 12.38 trillion Baht of market capitalization as compared to the total market capitalization of 19.21 trillion Baht of the SET Index. This reflects that large companies in Thailand have realized the importance on ESG issues and investment liquidity.”

“In the prospective of investment return, the total return of the SETESG Index (SETESG TRI) is higher than the total return of the SET (SET TRI). On a historical overview, the 3-year historical return of the SETESG TRI is 10.87% per annum whereas that of the SET TRI is 7.99% and the 5-year historical return of SETESG TRI is -0.32% per annum against -0.78% per annum of the SET TRI.”(Source: The Stock Exchange of Thailand as of the end of October 2023. / Past performance is no guarantee of future results.)

“Integrating ESG factors into the decision-making of investment contributes to good returns and risk mitigation. As a matter of fact, the company emitting less pollution is subject to lesser degree of regulatory constraints and lesser resistance from the community. Thus, the stock price of such company is accordingly less volatile than those of the companies emitting high pollution as the latters are controlled by certain rules and regulations which prevent them from running their businesses at full steam and may incur additional costs in reducing the pollution to the standard level. Take an obvious example, many electricity generating companies in China are still relying on fossil fuels while the Chinese Government pledges to reduce the country’s carbon footprint, resulting in the temporary cessation of operation of these electricity generating companies in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and eventually leading to sluggishness of the manufacturing sector in China.”

“Krungsri Asset Management has placed great emphasis on ESG issues by integrating ESG into its investment process and using ESG as one of the key factors in making investment decision. This has been reflected by the award of Outstanding Asset Management Company Awards – ESG for the year 2022 granted to the Company at the SET Awards 2022 event organized by the Stock Exchange of Thailand, which was given to companies that demonstrate outstanding achievement in good governance, social and environmental practices as well as the formulation of ESG-related investment policy,” Mrs. Supaporn said.

For KFTHAIESG details, click here. 

To request further information or a copy of the Fund’s prospectus,
please contact Krungsri Asset Management Co., Ltd. at Tel: 0 2657 5757
or any branch of Bank of Ayudhya nationwide

Investors should understand the fund features, conditions of returns, and risk, and study the tax benefits in the Investment Manual, before making investment decision. / Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Such rating has no connection to the rating of the Association of Investment Management Companies (AIMC) in any respect.
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KFTHAIESG invests at least 80% of its NAV on average in each fiscal year in securities or assets issued by the Thai Government or enterprises established under Thai laws that are selected as outstanding in terms of environmental or ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) consideration by high reliability organizations or institutions such as the stock Exchange of Thailand, etc., and/or stock of companies that have set goals to achieve the reduction of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in Thailand.  All of the stocks invested by the Fund must be listed on the SET and/or MAI and are principally constituent stocks of the SETESG Index. / Risk Level of the Fund: 6 – High Risk.