Ficus Capital is set to partner with Malaysian government agencies and invest in two companies in July 2023 following the launch of its Ficus ESGi Framework, Abdullah Hidayat, the executive director of Ficus Capital, told ISFI.
“Ficus plans to launch the Ficus ESGi Framework in June or July 2023 together with our announcement on investments into two companies that have been championing ESGi causes as well as strategic partnerships with government agencies that want to adopt [the] Ficus ESGi Framework,” Abdullah shared.
Earlier this month, it was announced that the Shariah compliant venture capital (VC) firm held a roundtable with ISRA Research Management Centre through INCEIF University to kick-start the development of its ESG framework. The white paper for the framework is expected to be completed in May this year.
According to Abdullah, the quadruple bottom line framework focusing on SMEs and start-ups takes a first-of-its-kind approach focusing on planet, people, profit and principle.
The firm believes there will be more VC companies that will focus on the Islamic ESG investment space.
“Ficus believes that companies should be exposed [to] and gradually adopt [the] ESGi concept from an early stage of business since globally investors are more keen on investing in ESG companies and the big corporations also are more keen to engage with ESG compliant companies as their vendors,” Abdullah added.
For its maiden Ficus Southeast Asia Fund, Ficus has outlined its investment policies and processes in accordance with its soon-to-be-launched framework where more credits and preference are given to companies that adhere to ESG criteria. Ficus adheres to the Global Reporting Initiative, the Refinitiv ESG score and the GHG protocol, ISFI has learned.
Abdullah further shared that the company is looking at qualifying a fund as an SRI fund under the Malaysian Securities Commission next year. The regulator revised the SRI fund guidelines earlier this week to facilitate the implementation of the ASEAN Sustainable and Responsible Fund Standards in Malaysia.