Hong Kong – House Awards: India Equity

Dear fellow Jurors, 

Thank you for offering your precious time in helping to assess the candidates' strategies.

Before Scoring, please read this first:-

  1. Would you please make sure you have your Judging ID put on each scorecard?  Your ID is next to your name on your private portal.
  2. You are advised to login BlueOnion platform in advance for your convenience to view related ESG materials.
  3. For the benefit of your time, the candidates you'll be scoring at The Gatekeepers Forum have been shortlisted based on their raw submissions to a lengthy due diligence questionnaire which you can find under the “Raw Submission" tab.  
  4. As always, your written comments, whether pillar by pillar or one overall comment, are highly appreciated and would help the candidates become better.
  5. Scoring will only be done at The Gatekeeper Forum and will be submitted immediately after the session.

Pillar 1. Investment process

To examine the principles and the team’s investment style and consistencies, accountability, and investor alignment

Pillar 2. Portfolio construction

To examine the portfolio disciplines, liquidity capability, investment/ divestment principles, and research resources

Pillar 3. Performance & Risk

To examine how performances and risks are generated, net returns together with drawdowns and recovery and investor diversification

Pillar 4. Stewardship

To examine the manager’s commitment to engagement and disclosure, responsible shareholding policies, and driving changes for investees

Pillar 5. Corporate Quality

To examine the company's commitment to responsible stewardship while ensuring healthy and sustainable growth

CONTESTANTS

Question 1:  On ESG and decarbonization – Does the portfolio have decarbonization targets?

No.  The portfolio does not specifically target carbon footprint reduction.  However, the organization does conduct carbon footprinting and climate scenarios modelling analysis for this strategy in order to review its exposures and identify present and future carbon hotspots.

The portfolio also manages carbon risk outside the energy sector by assessing the impacts of climate change and potential regulation on companies as well as their climate strategy.

We are in the process of shifting our emissions calculation from MSCI to S&P Trucost, and will expand the carbon footprint analysis from Scope 1+2 to include first tier upstream scope 3 emissions.

Question 2:  How is compensation for your team and performance of the fund aligned? If you can/ cannot participate in your own fund?

Investment professionals are compensated with a combination of base salary and incentives and part of the incentives would be in:

Deferred Incentives — One hundred percent of this portion of the award is invested in strategies managed by the team/individual as well as other Manulife Investment Management strategies with a three year vesting period.  Out of the one hundred percent, a minimum of forty percent must be invested in the fund that is managed by the portfolio manager.

Presenter

Rana Gupta , Senior Portfolio Manager, India Equity Specialist
Manulife Investment Management
Category: India Equity + Sustainability – ESG Integration and Stewardship

Other Participants (On-mute):
Willa Lau
Derrick Yee

Jurors

  1. Joanne Murphy, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, CAIA
  2. Alexandra Tracy, President of Hoi Ping Ventures
  3. Belle Liang, Head of Investment Advisory and Executive Director of Hang Seng Investment Services, Hang Seng Bank Limited
No Information

Presenter

Siddhartha Singh , Investment Director, Asia Equities
PineBridge Investments
Category: India Equity + Asia Pacific ex-Japan Equity

Jurors

  1. Mah Ching Cheng , Fund Advisory | Vice President Investment Products and Solutions, UOB Private Bank
  2. Jonathan Wan, Deputy Head of Retail Banking, ICBC (Asia) Limited
  3. Paul Smith, CEO, Walencourt Limited
  4. Andrea Webster, Managing Director Chartwell Capital