KUALA LUMPUR: BIMB Investment Management Bhd (BIMB Invest), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd, declared eight per cent (MYR and USD class) income distribution yield for its BIMB-Arabesque i Global Dividend Fund 1 (fund).
The fund’s yield exceeded its benchmark target of six per cent and higher than last year’s income distribution yield of 7.1 per cent for MYR class and 6.9 per cent for USD class.
BIMB Invest chief executive officer Najmuddin Mohd Lutfi said the fund has delivered a total return of 30.63 per cent and 19.14 per cent for USD and MYR class, respectively, since it was launched in November 2015 until February 2018.
“To date, the fund is the largest Islamic Global Equity Fund in Malaysia with a total fund size of about RM330 million. As at March 2, 2018, the fund ranks number one in the Lipper league table for Islamic Global Equity category for one-year return,” he said in a statement today.
He added the fund was the first Islamic Global Equity Fund in Malaysia that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in portfolio construction, integrating Shariah principles and the environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
“We are pleased to have delivered eight per cent for both MYR and USD class income distribution yield, exceeding the target benchmark of six per cent for two consecutive years and delivered higher than last year’s income distribution.”
Najmuddin said the fund uses artificial intelligence and big data technology in its investment process, which removes human biases and intuition as well as construct the best combination of stocks from a universe of 77,000 global listed companies.
The fund rebalances its portfolio on a daily basis between equity and cash for sustainable risk adjusted investment returns.
The systematic and rules-based quantitative investment approaches also take into account ESG data to invest in companies with sustainable financial future.
It applies more than 200 ESG parameters through more than 50,000 sources across 15 languages globally in its ESG assessment processes.
The fund is available at Bank Islam, Maybank, CIMB Private Banking, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd, Phillip Capital, Fundsupermart.com and through BIMB Invest’s consultants nationwide.