(Head office: Sakyo-ku, Kyoto; Representative Director: Koji Murota) has decided to establish and publish a guideline titled "ESG Investment and Respect for SDGs" for the selection of investment targets.

ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) investment is a concept born out of a reflection on past investment practices that emphasized only the pursuit of short-term profits. The concept was born out of a reflection on past investment practices that emphasized short-term profit. The SDGs, on the other hand, are a vision for a better world adopted by the United Nations in 2015, consisting of 17 goals.

In the future, one of our criteria in deciding which companies to invest in will be whether their business activities meet ESG and SDGs standards, and we will encourage them to adopt business policies that respect the spirit of ESG and SDGs even after we have invested in them. We believe that doing so will ultimately lead to an improvement in the medium- to long-term corporate value of our investees and the value of the funds we manage.

For more information on "ESG Investment and Respect for the SDGs," please refer to the attached document.