Kiwoom Asset Management to Develop Proprietary ESG Evaluation System and Expand Product Lineup

[Asia Economy, reporter Lee Minji] Kiwoom Asset Management announced on February 3 that it will establish an ESG management strategy system in line with global standards this year to secure opportunities for sustainable growth. Through its ESG Strategy Task Force, the company plans to complete the development of its ESG evaluation system within the first quarter, systematize it, and utilize it to enhance product development and management capabilities.

To this end, Kiwoom Asset Management is developing its own ESG evaluation system. The company is leveraging its internal research team, which consists of a total of 10 equity and bond analysts, for the development process. Unlike other asset management firms that construct their investment universe based on data from external ESG rating agencies, Kiwoom plans to internalize ESG evaluation capabilities by having in-house researchers directly assess the ESG performance of investee companies, aiming for ESG differentiation.

A Kiwoom Asset Management representative stated, “In January, we signed a data provision agreement with MSCI, a global leader in ESG research, to promptly identify global ESG trends and, in the long term, to use the data to upgrade our proprietary evaluation model.”

Within the first half of the year, the company plans to launch bond funds and ETFs, thereby completing the basic lineup of ESG products. Previously, since 2007, Kiwoom Asset Management has been operating the ‘Kiwoom Future Energy Fund,’ which primarily invests in companies providing products and services related to future energy, such as eco-friendly and renewable energy. This fund is an overseas ESG fund that tracks the ‘S&P Global Clean Energy Index’ and is directly managed by Kiwoom’s Global Markets Division. Its return over the past year has been around 95%.

To foster ESG funds, Kiwoom Asset Management plans to invest additional proprietary capital and expand its scale from the current 8 billion won to over 50 billion won through additional marketing efforts.

Kim Kihyun, Chief Investment Officer of Kiwoom Asset Management, stated, “Based on our accumulated know-how in ESG, gained from past experience with SRI fund management as well as the Future Energy Fund and the Right Fund, we will complete the early development of our proprietary ESG evaluation system.” He added, “Within the first half of the year, we will expand our ESG lineup and apply ESG investment principles to alternative investment funds as well.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.