The fund seeks capital appreciation in the long term by investing in small-size companies outside the United States.

The investment process starts with a list of companies in the benchmark index and the research team utilizes quantitative techniques and fundamental analysis to identify investment opportunities.

Next, the research team focuses on factors such as quality, valuation, catalyst, and hurdle rate.

The te More

The fund seeks capital appreciation in the long term by investing in small-size companies outside the United States.

The investment process starts with a list of companies in the benchmark index and the research team utilizes quantitative techniques and fundamental analysis to identify investment opportunities.

Next, the research team focuses on factors such as quality, valuation, catalyst, and hurdle rate.

The team favors companies that have superior competitive positions within their sector or industry, and offer a track record of innovation and product leadership as well as good pricing and cost discipline.

Also, the team prefers companies exhibiting characteristics such as low leverage and sufficient liquidity.

The research process is driven by fundamental analysis of one stock at a time. When evaluating individual securities, the research team relies on valuation multiples such as earnings and book value.

In addition, the research team looks for companies with the presence of near-term catalysts that can change investor perception.

Finally, the team considers companies that have the ability to generate a significant investment return consisting of both capital appreciation and dividend income.

Then the manager constructs a portfolio of stocks from a list of companies favored by the research team and allocates capital based on its conviction level.

The portfolio holds between 40 and 50 stocks of foreign companies but may invest in at least three different countries.

The manager considers a company to be a foreign company if 50% of the company’s assets are located outside of the United States, or 50% of the company’s revenues are generated outside of the United States, or the company is domiciled or doing a substantial amount of business outside of the United States.

The majority of these companies operate in established markets, however, the fund may invest up to 25% of its net assets in companies in emerging market countries.

From time to time, the fund may also focus its investments in a particular geographic region, such as Europe or Asia.