Ranking companies weren’t impressed both. For example, Morningstar gave the fund a ‘below-average’ ESG ranking, the bottom ranking in that class. The remaining seven schemes by different funds in the identical class had been assigned both a ‘excessive’ or ‘above common’ ranking.
Morgan Stanley Composite Index (MSCI) additionally put Quant’s ESG fund among the many lowest-rated funds within the sustainability class. The worldwide ranking company assigned Quant ESG ‘BBB’ ranking. All 5 different funds besides Kotak ESG Alternatives Fund and SBI Magnum ESG fund got an ‘A’ ranking.
But, Quant’s low ESG rankings didn’t appear to hassle buyers in any respect. And so, belongings beneath administration (AUM) of Quant ESG went up greater than 12 occasions from ₹14 crore to ₹165 crore since its inception in 2020.
Quant ESG’s downside was not confined to rankings alone. Among the shares chosen by the fund had been questionable. Adani Enterprises, a inventory that was largely accountable for the fund’s outperformance, has not been within the good books of ESG ranking companies. Sustainalytics calls the corporate ‘excessive danger’ and ranked it final within the ‘merchants and distributors’ class. MSCI assigned the inventory ‘laggard’ standing and pushed it to the underside of that class, and Crisil gave it a ‘beneath common’ ranking’.
In line with Fisdom analysis, Quant MF and Surat-based NJ Mutual Fund had been the one asset administration firms (AMCs) that had a sizeable allocation to Adani group shares as of December 2022, earlier than the Hindenburg report on the group unleashed a storm within the Indian markets. Many institutional buyers averted Adani group shares, citing a scarcity of transparency. Quant ESG Fund, too, exited Adani Enterprises in August 2022.
To make sure, the notion of a very good ESG firm can range. The paradox arises when there is no such thing as a single authority or method to resolve which firms are socially acutely aware and which aren’t. This has resulted in lots of ranking companies giving reverse rankings to the identical firm.
For example, Refinifitiv has ranked Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) among the many prime 3 firms out of 204 corporations within the ‘oil and fuel’ sector, whereas Sustainalytics has categorized it beneath ‘extreme danger’, the bottom rung.
MSCI calls Asian Paints a ‘chief’ in ESG however Sustainalytics sees the paints agency as ‘excessive danger’. MSCI additionally tagged Adani Ports a ‘laggard’ , the worst within the ESG class, whereas Sustainalytics ranked it among the finest on the planet.
Quant’s funding technique?
The scheme data doc (SID) explaining Quant ESG’s funding technique offers little readability on how the fund home filters shares. It mentions that the main target shall be on “the long run influence of ESG points somewhat than unduly weighting components presently occupying market consideration.”
This assertion, nevertheless, doesn’t clarify the fund’s excessive churn price. Quant ESG’s turnover ratio is 258% whereas the common turnover ratio within the class (excluding Quant ESG) is simply 26%. Invesco India ESG fund has the second highest turnover ratio of 41%. Ideally, to reap the advantages of long-term ESG components, fund managers maintain shares for an extended interval and keep away from frequent churning.
There’s extra to it than meets the attention. Mint discovered that the contents of the part ‘What are the funding methods?’ in Quant’s SID are precisely the identical as that of Axis ESG fund. However, regardless of having the identical technique, each the schemes have an overlap of nearly 10%. Axis’s churn price is a mere 24%. Unusually, for 2 funds that declare to comply with the identical framework for inventory choice, they’ve two drastically other ways of deploying investor cash.
The SID additionally states that “the funding technique of the scheme shall be to put money into a basket of securities primarily based on combining current conventional elementary, bottom-up monetary evaluation together with a rigorous evaluation on the environmental, social and governance features of the corporate.”
This assertion rings alarm bells since the usage of phrases like ‘conventional elementary, bottom-up monetary evaluation’ is in stark distinction with Quant AMC’s claims on managing investments. For starters, Quant AMC just isn’t the everyday fund home that invests utilizing elementary evaluation. As an alternative, it depends on VLRT, a fancy data-driven framework, to purchase and promote shares. It reportedly spent greater than ₹180 crore on accumulating information.
Mint additionally discovered that Quant AMC didn’t point out the VLRT framework wherever within the SID of its ESG portfolio whereas it was for the remaining 12 fairness schemes they run. Surprisingly, no holding within the ESG portfolio is exclusive, that means different schemes run by them have the identical shares. So, RIL is a recurring theme in all its MF schemes. In reality, all shares represented in Quant ESG funds have allocation in its different MF schemes, exhibiting a convergence in the way in which shares are chosen.
Quant Mutual Fund didn’t reply to a questionnaire despatched by Mint until press time.
Nirav Karkera, head of analysis at Fisdom, stated that Quant is ESG from a really totally different perspective than what is usually accepted by most different mutual funds. “Together with a differentiated perspective, the ESG fund can be managed with comparatively greater agility. Such agility is seen throughout different portfolios as nicely. In step with most of its funds, even the ESG fund reveals a comparatively greater churn,” stated Karkera. This might have led to its outperformance however one should take a better take a look at the fund home’s notion of ESG and if it nonetheless aligns with what an investor seeks from ESG-focused fund, he added.
Whereas the rankings assigned to the fund is dismal, there is no such thing as a actual gold normal by way of ESG norms, particularly within the Indian context. Worldwide ranking companies’ methodology will not be immediately relevant to Indian firms contemplating the distinction in working and regulatory atmosphere, in ESG context particularly.
Investor security
ESG investing is getting more and more in style within the nation and there’s strain in the marketplace regulator to keep away from ESG mutual funds from turning right into a advertising and marketing gimmick. In current occasions, accountable investing has gained momentum and, notably, seven of the ten ESG mutual funds had been launched in simply the previous three years.
Subsequently, the securities change board of India (Sebi) got here out with session experiences on three fronts: ESG disclosures, rankings, and investing.
On ESG investing, Sebi has proposed stricter disclosure norms to make sure that mutual funds are staying true to their tag. The regulator has sought readability on the form of ESG technique the fund is following, affordable assurance from a 3rd get together as as to whether the fund is following its acknowledged technique, adhering to disclosure on votes forged on firm resolutions, and is sustaining case research on portfolio firms, amongst others .
Additional, Sebi has proposed 5 sub-categories for ESG fund administration. This implies AMCs could be allowed to launch a number of ESG schemes following totally different methods if the proposals turn into regulation.
Additionally, fund managers could be required to elucidate the fund’s ESG technique on an annual foundation, how they have interaction with holding firms, escalations raised by the fund supervisor to firms, and particular feedback on the underlying firms.
Sebi is attempting to nudge ESG ranking suppliers (ERPs) to think about the home context whereas ranking firms. For this, they may want a singular set of metrics that may be measured within the Indian context.
Sebi can be attempting to enhance the standard of knowledge coming from corporates. Amongst different issues, Sebi needs to uncover the ESG practices of an organization’s provide chain members and make audited disclosure for a set of ESG metrics obligatory. This shall be carried out in a phased method, beginning with the highest 1,000 firms primarily based on market capitalization.
Until such time although, many fund managers will contemplate ESG to be simply one other trick to lure buyers within the identify of accountable investing. Many fund managers additionally argue that socially accountable filters might be utilized to current funds and that there is no such thing as a have to create a separate ESG fund.
Up to date: 29 Jun 2023, 09:00 AM IST