Hanhwa Investment & Securities Asset Management's 'Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund' Surpasses 1 Trillion KRW in Assets Under Management

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Korea Investment Management announced on the 20th that the assets under management of the 'Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund,' which invests in undervalued domestic credit bonds, have surpassed 1 trillion KRW.

As of the closing price on the 16th, the fund's assets under management reached 1.0572 trillion KRW (based on FnGuide). This is the largest scale among domestic bond-type public funds. The fund, which was 595.3 billion KRW at the end of last year, attracted 461.9 billion KRW this year, surpassing the 1 trillion KRW mark.

The Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund is a representative domestic bond-type fund managed by Korea Investment Management for 14 years since its launch in 2008. The fund selectively invests in undervalued high-quality domestic credit bonds, responding organically to interest rate fluctuations to pursue stable performance. Based on a credit investment analysis system developed in-house by Korea Investment Management, professionals collaborate to discover undervalued securities. The system checks individual companies' growth potential, profitability, and financial stability, and based on this, credit specialist portfolio managers and dedicated analysts collaborate to exchange investment opinions and decide on inclusion.

The Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund invests selectively in ▲ securities with potential for credit rating upgrades ▲ securities with high rating stability and sound fundamentals ▲ securities attractive from a governance perspective ▲ undervalued securities relative to their ratings. It also maintains a certain proportion of high-grade bonds to secure the fund's stability and promptly adjusts the portfolio to manage credit risk if signs of distress appear or fundamentals are expected to deteriorate.

Korea Investment Management renewed this fund in 2020 by incorporating an ESG bond investment strategy. The strategy aims to pursue sustainable excess returns by investing in bonds of issuers with excellent ESG ratings using an in-house ESG evaluation model. The fund portfolio also meets the ESG criteria of the global fund rating agency Morningstar and has been classified as a Sustainable Fund.

Park Bitnara, Head of FI Management Division 2 at Korea Investment Management, said, "Interest rates and credit spreads are stabilizing downward, leading to a surge in interest in corporate bond investments recently. Direct investment in corporate bonds involves high transaction costs and difficulties in monitoring individual securities, so there is growing interest in corporate bond funds where universe management and rebalancing are continuously conducted."

Meanwhile, the ‘Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund’ is a performance dividend-type product, and past returns do not guarantee future returns. Principal loss may occur depending on management results.

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