The Cathay Asian Growth Fund has been awarded Outstanding Achiever for ESG Integration and Stewardship in the Taiwan Sustainability Awards.

The strategy has implemented a comprehensive framework to integrate ESG into its investment process and decision-making, building on its philosophy that intangible ESG assets must be accurately valued. Multiple external sources of data, including MSCI ESG ratings and the ESG corporate ratings provided by Taiwanese ESG index providers, are reviewed before being incorporated into the team’s own analysis and database.

The Manager’s stewardship activities are considered well developed, including being the only investment house in Taiwan to participate in Climate Action 100+ and assuming the Chairmanship of the Asian Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC).

The fund has a separate responsible investment team that handles stewardship issues and interaction with investee companies on governance matters, focusing primarily on “improving ESG ratings “ and “climate change,” but monitoring needs improvement. According to cited examples, the team’s engagement with listed companies in Taiwan resulted in notable improvements in their MSCI ESG rating and disclosure around carbon reduction efforts. The examples highlighted in the engagement report were also commendable.

The strategy has consistently upgraded its ESG efforts in recent years, and the coming year intends to extend its ESG integrated investment process into bond investments.

This fund has been reviewed by four industry veterans of the Benchmark judging committee.