Objective
The investment objective of the Sub-Fund is to provide investment results that, before deduction of fees andexpenses, closely correspond to the performance of the HSI ESG Enhanced Index (the “Index”).
Strategy
In order to achieve the investment objective of the Sub-Fund, the Sub-Fund will adopt a full replication strategy bydirectly investing all, or substantially all, of the Sub-Fund's assets in securities constituting the Index ("IndexSecurities") in substantially the same weightings as these Index Securities have in the Index. The Manager willnot use a representative sampling strategy other than in exceptional circumstances.
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Under exceptional circumstances (i.e. due to restrictions, suspensions of trading, limited availability of certain IndexSecurities, corporate events, or as the Manager believes there is significant market mispricing or foreseeablemarket turbulence), where it is not feasible or not in the best interest of investors to acquire certain securities whichare constituents of the Index and/or it is not cost efficient, by reference to the Sub-Fund's Net Asset Value, to usea full replication strategy, the Manager may without prior notice to shareholders, also use a representative samplingstrategy to invest in the following, in its absolute discretion, and as often as the Manager believes is appropriate,in order to achieve the investment objective of the Sub-Fund by tracking the Index as closely as possible to thebenefit of shareholders:
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?(i) a representative sample whose performance is closely correlated with the Index, but whoseconstituents may or may not themselves be constituents of the Index; and/or
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(ii) other collective investment schemes (CIS). "CIS" means an exchange traded fund and/or an unlistedindex tracking fund which tracks an index that has a high correlation with the Index. The Sub-Fund'sability to invest in other CIS may not exceed 10% of its Net Asset Value and the Sub-Fund will not holdmore than 10% of any units issued by any single CIS; and/or
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(iii) financial derivative instruments (FDIs) (e.g. futures contracts) with no more than 10% of the Sub-Fund'sNet Asset Value for investment and hedging purposes, where the Manager believes such investmentswill help the Sub-Fund achieve its investment objective and are beneficial to the Sub-Fund.
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In pursuing a representative sampling strategy, the Manager may cause the Sub-Fund to deviate from the Indexweighting on condition that the maximum deviation from the Index weighting of any constituent will not exceed 3%or such other percentage as determined by the Manager after consultation with the SFC.
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If any non-constituent of the Index is held in the portfolio, for reasons other than Index rebalancing and Index relatedcorporate action, to enhance transparency the Manager will disclose the name and weighting of such nonconstituent securities and other CIS on the Manager's website immediately after the purchase and it will be reporteddaily until its disposal.
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The Sub-Fund may conduct securities lending transactions, sale and repurchase transactions and/or reverserepurchase transactions in aggregate for up to 10% of its Net Asset Value.
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Other than pursuing a representative sampling strategy during exceptional circumstances as disclosed above, theManager does not intend to invest in FDIs for any purpose.
Index
The Index aims to combine the Hang Seng Index ("HSI", the base index) with ESG (namely environmental, social andgovernance) initiatives from international lens.
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?The universe of the Index comprises the constituents of the HSI, with exclusion policy applied. The constituents of theHSI must be securities of companies that are listed on the Main Board of the SEHK (including Foreign Companieswith primary listing on the SEHK). "Foreign Companies" are companies which are (i) incorporated outside Hong Kong;(ii) non-mainland China companies (i.e. non-H-shares, non-Red-chips and non-P-chips companies); or (iii) companieswith history, headquarters, management and/or a principal place of business outside Hong Kong, Macau or mainlandChina. Stapled securities and biotech companies with stock names that end with marker "B" are excluded.
The exclusion policy of the Index will be based on ESG screenings applied from three dimensions:
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?(i) ESG risk ratings screening: ESG risk ratings from Sustainalytics ("ESG Risk Ratings") measure the degreeto which a company's economic value (enterprise value) is at risk from financially material ESG factors. TheESG Risk Ratings build on a two-dimensional approach (starting with the "exposure" dimension reflecting theextent to which a company is exposed to material ESG risks, followed by the "management" dimensionassessing how well the company manages its exposure to those risks) which are applied across the threebuilding blocks (namely corporate governance, material ESG issues and idiosyncratic issues (being theoccurrence of controversial/unexpected event)) upon which the overall ESG Risk Rating for a company isdetermined. The final rating outcome has been designed as a measure of unmanaged risk, in which the twodimensions of the ESG Risk Ratings, exposure and management are considered. Lower ESG Risk Ratingsrepresent less unmanaged risk. The constituents in the HSI are ranked based on their ESG Risk Ratings indescending order (i.e. Rank 1 corresponds to the highest ESG risk). The 10 constituents in the HSI with thehighest ESG risk according to the ESG Risk Ratings will be excluded from the Index, subject to the bufferzone rule. Please refer to the relevant Appendix in Part 2 of the Prospectus for more details on the ESG RiskRatings.
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(ii) United Nations Global Compact ('UNGC') principle screening: UNGC compliance ratings from three dataproviders, (the "UNGC Data Providers") including Sustainalytics, ISS ESG and Arabesque S-Ray? areused. For each constituent in the HSI, it will be excluded from the Index if it meets the UNGC DataProviders' non-compliance criteria for majority (i.e. >50%) of the UNGC Data Providers that cover theconstituent. Please refer to the relevant Appendix in Part 2 of the Prospectus for more details on the UNGCnon-compliance criteria.
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(iii) Controversial product involvement screening: Based on the controversial product involvement data fromSustainalytics, a constituent in HSI will be excluded from the Index if it reaches any of the following thresholdsof involvement:
?- ≥5% of revenue for each of the following types of product involvement screening area: thermal coalextraction, thermal coal power generation, tobacco products production, tobacco products retail.
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- any involvement for the following types of product involvement screening area: controversial weapon(tailor-made and essential), controversial weapon (non-tailor-made and non-essential)
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The Index adopts a weighting methodology in which the remaining constituents of the HSI after the three screeningsabove are applied will be adjusted by their respective tilt factors that are determined based on the ESG Risk Ratings.Weights of constituents with lower (higher) ESG Risk Ratings are tilted to be given higher (lower) weights, subject to a 4% cap on individual constituent for Foreign Companies constituent and a 8% cap on other individual constituentweight for each other Index constituent. Foreign Companies constituents are further subject to an aggregateconstituent weighting cap at 10%.
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The Index is a net total return index. A net total return index reflects the reinvestment of dividends or coupon payments,after deduction of any withholding tax (including surcharges for special levies, if applicable).
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The Index was launched on 29 November 2021. As of 31 December 2022, the Index has a free-float adjusted totalmarket capitalisation of HK$ 12.5 trillion and 65 constituents. As of 31 December 2022, 12 HSI constituents havebeen excluded from the Index after applying the relevant screening process. It is intended that the overall ESG RiskRating of the Sub-Fund's portfolio will achieve at least 20% improvement over that of HSI1.
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The Index is denominated in HKD and is calculated with a base value of 6000 as of 7 December 2018. It iscalculated and disseminated real-time at 2-second intervals during trading hours of the SEHK. The Index iscompiled and managed by Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited ("HSIL" or "Index Provider"), a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Hang Seng Bank Limited. The Manager and its connected persons are independent of the IndexProvider.
?Index constituents
The constituents of the Index together with their respective weightings and additional information of the Index arepublished at the website of HSIL at
www.hsi.com.hk/eng/indexes/all-indexes/hsiesgs. This website has not beenreviewed by the SFC.
Index code
Bloomberg Index Code: HSIESGSN
Reuters Code: .HSIESGSN
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