Nikko expands sin sector ban

Nikko Asset Management has excluded a new swag of ‘sin’ sectors from its ‘high conviction’ global equities fund.

In a just-released statement of investment policies and objectives (SIPO), Nikko details exclusion rules for the group’s Global Shares Fund covering companies involved in pornography, alcohol, fossil fuels and gambling.

The fund, managed by the Edinburgh-based Nikko global equity team for Australian and NZ investors, already blacklists stocks involved in the tobacco and controversial weapons sectors.

According to the SIPO, the fund now excludes all companies that derive more than 10 per cent of their revenue from adult entertainment-, alcohol- and gambling-related activities.

The Nikko fossil fuels exclusion threshold is slightly higher with the cut-off point set at companies that derive more than 20 per cent of their revenue “from the extraction of thermal coal and/or tar sands oil”.

Nikko’s new exclusion policy applies only to the in-house managed global fund, which targets a portfolio of between 40-60 ‘high conviction’ stocks. In NZ, Nikko also offers an international equities multi-manager product currently featuring WCM Investment Management, Davis Select Advisors and Royal London Asset Management as underlying managers.

To date the “relatively concentrated” Nikko global shares fund has attracted less than $1 million in retail money since launch late in 2017; the multi-manager product, meanwhile, retains about $150 million.

Meanwhile, Nikko NZ, which secured its second consecutive Morningstar fund manager of the year award last week, has hired Financial Markets Authority (FMA) lawyer, Simon Haines, as general counsel to replace Hayley Cassidy.

Cassidy, who spent almost five years at Nikko, is due to take up the chief general counsel role at BNZ later this month. Haines is due to fill the gap in mid-March following a five-year stint at the FMA where he most recently served as manager of disclosure.

– David Chaplin, Investment News NZ

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