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Sumitomo Trust & Banking To Launch “Biodiversity Fund” at the End of July Date: July 22, 2010

ASrIA Member

(Sumitomo Trust & Banking) – The Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. (STB, President: Hitoshi Tsunekage) is launching its “Biodiversity Fund” at the end of July, advising SumitomoTrust Asset Management (STAM), an investment manager for the mutual fund, a subsidiary of STB.

In Japan, CBD COP10 is scheduled to be held in Nagoya this October, and Keidanren, along with JCCI and KEIZAI DOYUKAI, have announced “Private Sector Engagement Initiative”, showing rising interests towards biodiversity in business community. Particularly, companies are focusing on supply chain management in selecting materials for their products that care biodiversity in the environment, and preservation of ecosystems in their mainstream business development. At the COP10, we are looking forward to announcements made by companies, with newest case studies in this field.

The fund that the Sumitomo Trust has announced is a Japanese equity investment strategy, investing in listed companies that engage in biodiversity and sustainable development, reflection of business environment. We screen investment universe by focusing on:

1) Companies with the technologies the reduce negative impact to biodiversity,

2) Companies with the technologies that can secure biodiversity,

3) Companies with medium or longer term plans to secure biodiversity.

STB will be actively invest in mid-small capitalization companies as well as large cap ones, that provide services and businesses for the preservation and restoration of biodiversity.

JRI (Japan Research Institute) is an institution that is designated the fund’s qualitative research, and JRI and Sumitomo Trust have been business partners since the launch of Japanese equity SRI fund “Good Company”. Japan Ecosystem Conservation Society Japan has also advised the strategy from their expertise.

STB is a signatory of “Business and Biodiversity Initiative” in Germany 2008, and set its business policy concerning biodiversity issues, providing related financial products and services, and became a leading company in Japan on biodiversity.

Concerning the SRI, Sumitomo has won pension funds mandates since 2003, and STB has launched “China Good Company” this march, drawing attention from overseas investment community as few investment managers offer the investment strategy, and STB is expecting further interests at COP10 conference in Nagoya.