Best Responsible Investment Manager 2024 & Best Japanese Large-Cap Equity Fund (3 Years): Japan Strategic Value Fund Headquartered in the heart of Tokyo, the Nomura Asset Management Group (Nomura Asset Management) is a premier global investment manager with a worldwide presence. The firm’s international status is reflected through the 14 offices it boasts around the world in such locations as Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, New York, Frankfurt, and London. Across all of these regions, Nomura Asset Management has built a workforce of more than 1,300 – including more than 230 portfolio managers and over 125 professionals dedicated to carrying out beneficial research. With in excess of 355 seasoned investment experts comprising a significant portion of its global team, Nomura Asset Management’s service suite consists of a number of innovative investment strategies – from global, regional, and even single country equities through to high yield bonds and alternative investments, to name just a few. It is on the back of this that the firm is today able to call many of the world’s leading pension funds, central banks, foundations, financial institutions, and individual investors its valued clients. Nomura Asset Management’s success in this field is far from new. Going back to the origins of the Nomura company group, which takes us to its founding in 1873, this is an enterprise that has always upheld the highest standards. By the time the early 1920s rolled around, Nomura had already become synonymous with quality and proven itself to be Japan’s leading entity in the realm of financial services. Approximately 30 years later, the group then took its first steps into the global arena and has not looked back since. It would then be in 1959 that Nomura first established a dedicated investment management division in Japan, and the 65 years since have seen Nomura Asset Management serve as a beacon of responsible investment, now on an international scale. And, since it has almost US$ 550 billion in assets under management to its name, investing responsibly is not only something that the firm wants to do, but it is also something that it truly believes is a moral obligation, and one it is more than happy to oblige at that. Proudly serving as a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) since 2011, Nomura Asset Management’s commitment to solidifying its status as a provider of responsible investments is today woven into the very fabric of the firm. With every action it takes, the repercussions for clients, stakeholders, and the wider environment are carefully considered, before the best course of action is taken regarding an investment so as to offer the highest possible value for these three target areas. This responsible investment pledge is something that permeates across many divisions of Nomura Asset Management, from Nomura Asset Management U.K. Limited (NAM UK) – which has been integrating ESG-based research into all of the individual global equity investment committee reviews since back in 2013 – to the continuous upholding of the UNPRI principles in Malaysia by both Nomura Asset Management Malaysia SDN BHD (NAMM) and Nomura Islamic Asset Management SDN BHD (NIAM). Since 2016, all of the responsible investment engagement and ESG strategies carried out by Nomura Asset Management across North America, Europe, and the APAC region have been made public through the release of quarterly reports, a decision made in order to further boost both the transparency and lasting influence of the firm’s activities. Lately, these efforts have centred around the likes of eliminating communicable diseases, ensuring global access to basic financial and drinking water, and mitigating climate change. As for how these goals are achieved, Nomura Asset Management operates a number of equity and fixed income funds across the globe. Just as the award bestowed upon the firm suggests, it is the Japan Strategic Value Fund managed by NAM UK – with a domicile of Ireland through Nomura Funds Ireland plc – that we believe to be Nomura Asset Management’s definitive offering. At a size of almost US$ 2 billion, this fund, launched more than 15 years ago and overseen by Yoshihiro Miyazaki, is certainly worthy of acclaim. It is the aim of the Japan Strategic Value Fund to unlock long-term capital growth by investing in a portfolio of Japanese equity securities. Taking advantage of stock undervaluation and corporate restructuring in order to attain such value, this venture sees Yoshihiro and his team tap into the key themes that will serve as the main drivers of the future of Japan’s equity market. The successes experienced across this fund can be attributed to a number of factors, including the bottom-up, value-oriented investment style it adopts. Other distinguishing features of the award-winning Japan Strategic Value Fund include its stable, well-established investment team, the substantial research platform it leverages, and an approach that is unconstrained, consistent, and looks at investment as a long-term opportunity. There are few risks involved with the fund, with the only limiting factor being that it is based in one country as opposed to several, and it even enjoys a five-star rating from Morningstar, which only adds to its value for potential investors. Just like with every fund it operates, Nomura Asset Management is upfront about sustainability, with this venture sharing the wider firm’s aims of promoting the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and adopting business practices and social/environmental characteristics which are deemed to be both fair and inclusive. As one might expect, this is something that is not only exclusive to this particular fund, and it would be fair to say that all nine of the funds currently in operation possess equally strong sustainable undercurrents. Moreover, outside of the fund environment, the strategic partnership formed just a couple of years ago with New Forests Pty Ltd is just one example of how the firm plans to continuously innovate in the field of sustainability going forwards. This global investment manager of nature assets and natural capital strategies currently possesses in the realm of US$ 8 billion in assets under management across more than 3 million acres of investments, which it is using to realise its vision of a more sustainable future for us all. New Forests’ portfolio is extremely diverse, ranging from timber plantations through to forest conservation areas, and its investment strategies are all geared towards supporting the pivotal role that forests have in providing solutions to humanity’s problems. Be it providing the sustainable wood fibre for our growing circular bioeconomy or helping rural communities and regional economies to develop sustainably, this corporation has the answer. It will thus benefit immeasurably from the like-minded Nomura owning more than 41% of its shares. Nomura Asset Management
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTY1MjM3