March 22, 2007
ABN AMRO Asset Management Launches First Indian SRI Mutual Fund
by Anne Moore Odell
New fund focuses on companies screened by Indian research and ratings company CRISIL.
SocialFunds.com --
With the launch of the Indian Sustainable Development
Fund, ABN AMRO Asset
Management opens up a new emerging market for socially responsible investors. ABN AMRO, based in The
Netherlands, is adding the Indian fund after its success with its emerging markets funds focused on
Brazil and China. The formidable task for the India SRI fund is finding companies that meet global
standards for environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues.
ABN AMRO claims this is the first broadly-screened
Indian SRI mutual fund. Work is being done by CRISIL, an Indian based research and ratings company, and
Boston-based KLD Research & Analytics to systematically evaluate Indian companies. A consortium
composed of CRISIL, S&P and KLD Research & Analytics has recently won a mandate from International
Finance Corporation (IFC) in Washington, DC to create an ESG-based index of leading Indian firms.
The consortium is planning to launch this index toward the end of this calendar year.
The
Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA), a non-profit that works to promote SRI in Asia, has been
following the development of mutual funds in India and surrounding countries. Melissa Brown,
ASrIA�s Executive Director, told Socialfunds.com, "A number of Indian companies are working on
their sustainability profiles. By Asian standards, Indian management teams have a high comfort
level in talking about the issues thanks to a strong civil society tradition."
"The
question will be how quickly can they develop the strategies and systems necessary to demonstrate
performance," Brown added.
ABN AMRO Asset Management plans to put 65% of the Fund�s assets
in screened companies, and the remainder in other stocks, debt and money market instruments. The
Fund is structured as a three-year close ended equity fund with an automatic conversion to an
open-ended scheme after the three years are over. Long-term capital growth is the Fund�s investment
objective, using an actively managed portfolio of SRI companies focusing on sustainable
development. They offer the regular plan with growth and dividend options.
Working with
CRISIL, whose majority shareholder is Standard and Poor�s (S&P), ABN AMRO is choosing which
companies to include in the Indian Sustainable Development Fund. CRISIL has selected 245 companies
from the S&P CNX
500 based on the companies� ESG practices. The S&P CNX 500 is a broad-based equity index
covering the Indian capital market.
CRISIL is using two screens to cull the S&P CNX 500
for ABN AMRO. They have created one set of questions on corporate governance and another set of
questions that deal with social and environmental issues. CRISIL then checks if the S&P CNX 500
company has made any public disclosures on these issues.
Sunil Kumar Sinha, Head and
Senior Economist at CRISIL explained, "For assessing Indian companies we have developed an ESG
(Environment, Social and Governance) screen/template which is based on global benchmarks. For
example, our screen on governance takes into account OECD global guidelines. Similarly, the
environment and social screen takes into account Global Reporting Initiative, ILO labor and
employment convention, Kyoto Protocol, etc."
"The reason why we don't have more SRI
emerging markets funds is the lack of data, so we have to focus on transparency and disclosures
from the company," David Morrow said, Global Specialist in SRI for ABN AMRO.
CRISIL plans
to evaluate the S&P CNX 500 on a yearly basis to identify SRI companies in India. ABN AMRO Asset
Management will further reduce the list created by CRISIL as it applies its own financial analysis.
Presently ABN AMRO Asset Management offers 24 country-specific SRI funds with nearly EUR 2
billion of assets under management. Started in 2001, the Brazil Fund has $50 million in assets.
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