Investment Management

1. Deliver steady, risk-adjusted outperformance over the longer-term.
2. Capture the upside – embrace risk & generate attractive risk-adjusted returns.
3. Manage the downside – predominantly through diversification (risk mitigation).
4. Ultimately, ensuring a global footprint through a diversified portfolio across various asset classes, to ensure an appropriate risk/return trade off.
5. A growing area continues to be the ‘ESG’ investing space. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing is an umbrella term for investments that seek both positive performance, but also to have a beneficial long-term impact on society, the environment and the performance of the business. We believe ESG investing is based on creating shared value which generates greater innovation and growth for both companies and society at large. Ultimately, this offers scope for sustainability of long-term investment returns.
6. The incorporation of ESG analysis into our investment process is not indicative of a change in our process, nor of style shift. This has been a part of our investment process and strategy since 2018. Instead, our investment method remains exactly the same. As investors, the quality of our long-term analysis and portfolio construction is instead augmented by the inclusion of additional ESG metrics. This, in turn, can help mitigate risk and lead to superior long-term performance, which, as those charged with growing your capital, is important to note is still of paramount importance.

The Circular Economy / Socially Responsible Investing

We know that socially responsible investing is an ever-increasing subject: clients are asking more of us, and we are asking more of the companies we invest in. We believe that companies that have stronger environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials will perform better over the longer term. But behind that simple statement is the reality that understanding a firm’s ESG credentials is not that easy. Assessing these is not a case of distilling a range of factors into a single number or rating: it is nuanced and, in our view, it has to be bespoke. Integrating ESG into our investment processes has been going on for years and we continue to invest in this as successful ESG analysis isn’t a task that will be ‘complete’ any time soon.

Sustained Success

Our work in engaging with companies will also continue to develop. Yes, we want to understand the ESG risks in any investment, but we have a duty to our clients and society as a whole to engage with companies about what they are doing and how they are doing it.

We look for companies to act as responsible corporate citizens, working within the spirit and not just the letter of the laws and regulations that govern them. We believe that corporate success will only be sustained if a business’s long-run impact on society and the environment is considered. Management and boards should therefore understand and regularly review this aspect of their activities, disclosing such information publicly alongside plans for ongoing improvement.