KENANGA INVESTORS LAUNCHES EMERGENCY WAQF MUSA’ADAH FUND

The Kenanga Sustainability Series: Emergency Waqf Musa’adah Fund assigns a portion of returns to those affected by climate-related disasters

Putrajaya, 11 October 2022: Kenanga Investors Berhad (“Kenanga Investors”) has announced the launch of the Kenanga Sustainability Series: Emergency Waqf Musa’adah Fund (“the Fund”).

The Fund aims to primarily provide income distribution as well as achieve capital growth by investing in local and global diversified portfolios of Shariah-compliant equities, Shariah-compliant equity-related securities, sukuk, Islamic money market instruments, or Islamic deposits that integrates both Shariah principles as well as principles of sustainable investing.

The launch is the result of collaborative efforts involving Kenanga Investors, Yayasan Waqaf Malaysia (“YWM”) and Match Foundation (“MATCH”) which was ratified by a memorandum of agreement signed between the three parties in November last year, witnessed by YB Senator Datuk Haji Idris bin Haji Ahmad, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) and Charles Hay, British High Commissioner to Malaysia. The memorandum appointed Kenanga Investors as the Fund Manager of funds received from institutional investors as well as an initial seed funding of RM3mil that was allocated in Budget 2022 as part of the government’s objectives to create a national waqf fund specifically to assist those affected by climate change-related disasters or future pandemics.

“As a qualified Sustainable and Responsible Investment product, the Kenanga Sustainability Series: Emergency Waqf Musa’adah Fund sets out to generate sustainable returns that will directly benefit disaster victims in the country by helping them return to normalcy. Returns will also go towards providing new or improving existing climate change disaster-control related facilities or equipment. We are glad to continue our partnership with Yayasan Waqaf Malaysia to develop the Islamic social finance segment and to ensure a systematic process is in place to distribute proceeds to areas or projects that require assistance”, said Datuk Wira Ismitz Matthew De Alwis, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer.

He explained that the Fund will be subjected to the integration of Environmental, Social and Governance methodology in its investment strategy. This includes the selection, monitoring and realisation of the Fund’s investments. “Our methodology involves the evaluation of ESG criteria on companies in which the Fund invests. Apart from analysing companies based on fundamentals and other value creation metrices, relevant ESG factors are incorporated as part of the securities analysis, stock selection, and post-investment portfolio monitoring. Moreover, a positive and negative screening process is applied to include or exclude companies that align or are deemed not aligned based on our fund manager’s ESG assessment and scoring”, Datuk Wira De Alwis added.

YWM’s Chief Executive Officer, YBrs. Prof. Madya Dr. Amir bin Shaharuddin commented, “As the recipient and administrator of the Emergency Waqf Fund, this partnership has been instrumental in ensuring that Yayasan Waqaf Malaysia fulfils its function to assist in the development of existing waqf properties, to create new waqfs and to develop the ummah economy through waqf instruments. We expect that the introduction of the Fund to the market will provide sophisticated investors an opportunity to allocate 70% of the fund’s returns towards socially impactful projects and therefore integrate financial with social goals. This is a significant step towards driving and normalising investments for the greater good of society”.

Returns generated through the Fund will be distributed by YWM to beneficiaries with assistance from MATCH which consists of a group of non-governmental organizations focusing on humanitarian aid and emergency relief to emergency beneficiaries.

The Fund is the fourth product launched under the Kenanga Sustainability Series, a suite of multi-asset class products rooted in sustainability considerations to advance long-term financial growth for investors and to generate social and financial value for surrounding communities. It is also the second waqf-featured fund launched after the Kenanga Waqf Al-Ihsan Fund, which was introduced in April 2021. Benchmarked against an income distribution of 4%, the Fund is suitable for sophisticated investors with a medium to long-term investment horizon and are willing to contribute part of their investment returns for waqf purposes at a minimum initial investment amount of RM10,000.

For more information about Kenanga Investors Berhad, please visit www.kenangainvestors.com.my.

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