The organisations have joined forces to step up work in the sustainable investments space.

Thailand-based Kasikorn Asset Management and Switzerland's Lombard Odier this week entered into a sustainability alliance, expanding on a pact between the bank and KBank Private Banking.  

Under the alliance, Lombard Odier will act as a consulting partner to KAsset and help develop investment offerings and services to the Thai client market, the Geneva-headquartered private bank said in a statement. The agreement aims to strengthen KAsset’s sustainability position in Thailand.

The agreement also highlights the extent to which European banks, such as Julius Baer and BNP Paribas, have sought to expand wealth operations in Thailand, one of the faster-growing of the emerging market countries in Asia. Julius Baer, for example, which treats Asia as its second home market, formed a Thai joint venture in 2018. TriLake Partners, the external asset manager, opened a representative office in Thailand. 

As a first step, KAsset announced the launch of its new Target Net Zero equity strategy on the SET 100 Index in December last year. The TNZ strategy, which uses Lombard Odier’s expertise to build climate-aligned portfolios, is a prelude to a range of initiatives, including a signature forum on sustainability for the clients of KBank.

“Both companies, which have long been in partnership, have attached importance to sustainability. This synergy will help uplift investment products to the next level, thus delivering long-term growth of returns to investors with the shared goal of creating a sustainable world,” Kattiya Indaravijaya, chief executive officer at Kasikornbank, said. 

“We are looking at the transition to net zero as a profound economic transformation – one that is unfolding at a speed and scale that we think much of the market is still underestimating,” Hubert Keller, senior managing partner at Lombard Odier, added. “Our ability to reach net zero remains the single most important component of the sustainability transition across all companies and industries and requires a thorough rethink of how we deploy our capital,” he continued.

“We started this journey with KBank with the launch of the planetary transition strategy in 2020," Vincent Magnenat, limited partner, Asia regional head and global head of strategic alliances at Lombard Odier, said. "Through this alliance, we are eager to support KAsset on enhancing their sustainability capabilities and the joint development of innovative solutions such as the Target Net Zero strategy on the Thai equity index launched in December 2023,” he added.

According to a report published by McKinsey in November 2021, wealth management in Thailand is expected to grow strongly over the next five years, with assets under management growing by about 10 per cent per annum.

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