The Mirova Global Sustainable Equity Fund was registered last Friday with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The product is in recognition-pending process, according to MAS records. Once approved, it will be available to retail investors in Singapore.
The Luxembourg-domiciled fund was launched in October 2013 in Europe, according to FE Fundinfo.
“The actively-managed fund follows a multi thematic responsible investment strategy focused on sustainable development. The investment process relies on stock picking based on a deep fundamental analysis of companies combining both financial and ESG considerations,” according to its prospectus.
The management team seeks companies addressing issues related to sustainable themes. Other criteria include quality of the business model, competitive positioning, management team and capacity to finance growth, as well as the overall quality of ESG practices, the prospectus noted.
Microsoft and Mastercard are the top two holdings and together make up 10% of the portfolio with the main sector allocation to information technology, the factsheet shows.
The portfolio is concentrated with 43 positions and the top ten holdings account for 40% of the fund’s total assets.
The manager aims to outperform the MSCI World Index (with net dividends reinvested) over five-years.
Founded in 2012 in Paris, Mirova is an investment manager dedicated to sustainable investing, which had $14bn in AUM at the end of 2019, according to Natixis’s website.
FSA contacted the firm for more information, but it was unable to reply in time for publication.
ESG in Singapore
Other asset managers that are planning to launch ESG products in the Lion City include Fidelity, which filed an application with the regulator for its Sustainable Water and Waste Fund last month.
In 2018, Goldman Sachs Asset Management launched its Emerging Markets Equity ESG Portfolio, targeting Singapore retail investors.
Also in 2018, Blackrock introduced four ESG products in Singapore, the Emerging Markets Blended Bond Fund, the EM Bond Fund, the EM Corporate Bond Fund and the EM Local Currency Bond Fund.
Mirova Global Sustainable Equity Fund vs the MSCI World and sector
