Selangor Journal

M’sia Asset Managers Bullish on ESG Investment

Source: Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR – Asset managers in Malaysia are more bullish on investing in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) portfolio compared to their counterparts in Singapore, according to a survey conducted by Bloomberg.

The poll showed 67 per cent of Malaysian respondents believed that ESG-integrated portfolio investment will perform as well or better than a non-ESG integrated portfolio, against 58 per cent of asset managers in Singapore were bullish on ESG investing.

In addition, 72 per cent of asset managers in Malaysia has incorporated ESG factors into their existing investment processes compared to 62 per cent in the island republic.

“More Malaysian asset managers now understand the benefits of ESG investing and are starting to incorporate ESG factors into their investment process,” Bloomberg’s head of ASEAN, Maggie Ng said in a statement.

According to her, based on data from Global Sustainable Investment Alliance’s “2018 Global Sustainable Investment Review” report, Asia asset managers in Malaysia and Singapore were lagging behind their European and US counterparts in adopting ESG investment policies.

“Forty-two per cent of asset managers in Malaysia felt that building local expertise and investing in capacity building will be the key driver of ESG investing in Asia.

“In contrast, Singapore-based asset managers believed that better data and impact reporting tools will help spur growth of ESG investing,” she added.

The survey was conducted at Bloomberg’s second annual buy-side forum in Kuala Lumpur last week following a similar survey in Singapore in April, with more than 150 market participants convened to discuss opportunities and challenges faced by the buy-side industry in 2019.

-BERNAMA

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