NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, JAN 20
To tap the surge in ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) interest, Axis Mutual Fund will be launching Axis ESG Equity Fund on January 22, which will remain open until February 5, the fund house announced on January 20.
The open-ended multicap scheme will be investing in companies demonstrating sustainable practices across the environment, social and governance themes. The scheme will invest up to 30 percent of global sustainable companies.
The scheme will exclude sectors/themes that are deemed harmful from a societal perspective. For instance, exclude tobacco, liquor and defence stocks.
The ESG framework provides investment managers with a tool to capture these issues comprehensively and the framework is used by investment managers to identify how each company in their coverage is exposed to or are reacting to ESG factors.
The fund will be managed by the head of equities Jinesh Gopani, and Hitesh Das, who will manage investments in foreign securities.
The minimum investment in the fund is Rs 5,000 and in multiples of one rupee thereafter and the fund will be benchmarked against Nifty 100 ESG TRI Index.
“By combining ESG analysis with traditional financial metrics, we can come up with a more holistic understanding of each company in our portfolio,” said Chandresh Kumar Nigam, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Axis Mutual Fund.
The Nifty100 ESG Index has outperformed the Nifty50 Index in the last 8 years.
From 2011-2019, Nifty100 ESG Index Fund delivered 14.5 percent returns while Nifty 50 Index gave 12.9 percent.
