14 Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad Annual Report 2021 Our Sustainability Approach About This Report We Are Kenanga Message From Chairman and GMD BEATING THE ODDS The year 2021 was a year of two halves for the Malaysian capital markets. The first half was largely shaped by the same robust momentum that fuelled our bumper year in 2020. The retail-driven strong trading volumes on Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (“Bursa Malaysia”) led to the excellent performance in our stockbroking business. However, this momentum moderated sharply in the second half of the year, as the country was hit by multiple headwinds—the reintroduction of lockdown measures in the middle of the year due to surging COVID-19 cases, as well as concerns over new taxes introduced under Budget 2022. The FBM KLCI which hovered above 1,600 points at the start of the year, slipped below 1,500 points during second half. Daily average trading value weakened to RM4.1 billion in December from a high of RM10.6 billion in February. The waning market conditions, spurred the urgent need for our businesses to swiftly pivot to capture new opportunities. Guided by the same customer-centric approach, deep-rooted in our DNA, the leadership teams of the Group’s various core business units joined hands to accelerate alternative investment solutions, which allowed us to respond to new demands and tap new opportunities that served to mitigate some of the impacts from the volume decline in the equities market. On the whole, while our stockbroking business continued to contribute the lion’s share of our 2021 bottom line, it is worth noting that both our asset and wealth management and private equity businesses made significant strides that allowed us to thrive through the tumultuous year to deliver a stellar performance that beat the odds—a testimony to the strength of our diversification strategy. I am confident that this magnitude of synergy is possible only through the exceptional level of teamwork, communication and unity of purpose, that continue to characterise the true Kenanga spirit. As we met the volatility and challenges of the year head-on, we were committed to ensure we did not lose momentum in terms of planning for future growth. Throughout the year, our teams continued to design and develop new systems, advance automation for efficiencies and was constantly looking at new ways to approach the market with innovative solutions. 2022 will be an exciting year, as we launch our proprietary A.I.- driven robo-advisory Kenanga Digital Investing, and look forward to the rollout of digital onboarding and automated margin financing capabilities on our trading platform (www.kentrade. com.my), that will set the stage for more seamless and optimal client journey and experience. Our Foreign Exchange Remittance platform is also expected to go live this year, further increasing digital distribution of our products and enhancing accessibility to the largest and most liquid market in the world. Over the last five (5) years, Kenanga has been building its digital footprint in the financial and wealth management space through various strategic collaborations while growing our in-house digital competencies. As a result, we now have the full spectrum of ready digital wealth services for the retail market that ranges from foundational or ‘less risky’ to the advanced or ‘more risky’ product ranges. With the key building blocks in place, the next three (3) years for Kenanga will be an exciting one as we will focus on scale and growth through a two-prong approach. One of it involves consolidating all our digital wealth services onto a single wealth platform where data analytics will be used to drive cross-selling and synergies between our various services with the aim of providing hyper-personalised financial planning features. The other involves our Wealth-as-a-Service approach where digital platform providers can easily choose from our wide range of digital wealth services and easily plugin these offerings into their ecosystems so that they can complement their existing services with wealth services. This will ultimately enable Kenanga to achieve scale in a sustainable manner. As mentioned by our Chairman, Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Syed Anwar Jamalullail in his message, sustainability, is without a doubt, front and centre for the Group. During the year, Kenanga was included into the FBM EMAS Index, a validation of our growing market presence and serves as an encouragement for us to further advance our ESG agenda. For the first time this year, we are releasing a standalone Sustainability Report which outlines enhanced disclosures of our ESG activities and progress in 2021. Scan this QR code to visit our sustainability microsite.
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