[2024 Capital Investment Target] KTB Asset Management's 'Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund'... Over 1 Trillion Won Inflow This Year

Bestfund Korea Investment Trust Management 'Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund'

Korea Investment Trust Management won the Best Fund Award at the '2024 Asia Capital Investment Awards' with the 'Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund.'

Bae Jae-gyu, CEO of Korea Investment Trust Management. Provided by Korea Investment Trust Management

The Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund, launched in 2008, is Korea Investment Trust Management's flagship domestic bond fund. It invests in high-quality domestic credit bonds rated A- or higher to pursue interest income and capital gains. To manage liquidity, it maintains a certain proportion of government bonds and keeps the proportion of A-rated bonds below 50%. Portfolio managers with extensive corporate bond investment experience and three dedicated credit analysts analyze securities to identify undervalued stocks.

On October 10 of this year, the fund's assets under management surpassed 1.5 trillion KRW for the first time. More than 300 billion KRW flowed in within about a month. According to FnGuide, it recorded 1.8132 trillion KRW as of the 11th of last month. Since the beginning of this year, over 1 trillion KRW has been invested, showing a rapid increase compared to the 507.2 billion KRW at the end of last year.

In addition to discovering undervalued stocks, the Korea Investment Credit Focus ESG Fund employs various portfolio strategies to achieve excess returns. Representative strategies include long-short spread strategies and relative value trading among sectors, credit ratings, and individual securities.

Through Korea Investment Trust Management's excellent issuance and distribution market network, the fund continuously rebalances at low cost and steadily improves returns. The fund's advantage lies in diversified investments across more than 80 issuers, and through thorough risk management, there has never been a case where the credit rating of held assets fell below A-grade during the 16 years since its inception.

The fund duration (weighted average maturity) is maintained around two years. Maintaining this level of duration offers the advantage of higher expected returns compared to ultra-short-term bond funds and short-term financial products during future interest rate cuts. It also shows higher stability compared to mid- to long-term bond funds in unexpected interest rate hike phases.

Since 2020, an ESG investment strategy has been added to create sustainable returns. ESG investment refers to investing in companies that have a positive impact on the Environment and Social aspects or have excellent Governance. Korea Investment Trust Management believes that companies with lower ESG-related risks have higher sustainable growth potential. Therefore, it conducts regular and ad-hoc monitoring through its own ESG scoring and swiftly rebalances the portfolio when signs of deterioration or fundamental weakening are expected.

A representative from Korea Investment Trust Management stated, "We recommend this fund for investors seeking relatively stable and higher returns compared to short-term products during interest rate cut phases or for asset allocation in retirement pensions. We will continue active stock discovery and thoroughly monitor whether fundamentals deteriorate due to prolonged tight financial conditions in the future."