The Kenanga Sustainability Series Frontier Fund will invest mainly in equities of innovative companies with long-term sustainable growth potential, are on the cusps of initial public offerings, and have or will develop products and services that are linked to technologically-driven innovations, according to a statement by the Kuala Lumpur-based asset manager.
Ismitz Matthew De Alwis, chief executive officer of Kenanga Investors, said that the firm intends to reshape the existing private equity space in Malaysia by focusing on addressing the lack of available gateways for investors to access investment opportunities in prominent, hard-to-reach early start-ups.
“Since 2016, emerging digital companies have won over the “old economy” by being among the top five most valuable corporations. Given the constant development of new technologies, it is unsurprising that new technology companies are sprouting,” he said.
Kenanga Investors expects significant investment possibilities in growth or late stage ventures, where their underlying themes focus on the “next generation”, or forward-looking innovations currently shaping the industries of the future, such as the space economy, the metaverse, healthcare, fintech and cybersecurity.
The fund will allow investors to capture the sustainable value generation of these companies, which were previously only available to institutional investors.
It feeds into the Ericsenz Frontier Fund and is suitable for “sophisticated investors” who have medium to long-term investment horizons. The initial offer period is from 27 October to 3 December, and share classes are available in both ringgit and US dollars.
“Frontier tech represents a multitude of opportunities in boosting the development curve of the future, from utilisation of technologies to reduce carbon emissions, new medical discoveries to propel patient empowerment to the democratisation of financial services, the advent of frontier tech will allow for greater societal benefits and driving sustainable returns” said De Alwis.
The target fund Manager, Ericsenz Capital Pte., is a venture capital and private equity firm licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which deals with high growth middle-market companies primarily within the technology, healthcare, consumer and energy sectors.
