The fund seeks capital appreciation in the long term by investing in companies across any size in the United States.
The fundamental, bottom-up investment process starts by identifying companies in the benchmark index that exhibit improving prospects and attractive valuations.
The investment team also considers environmental, social and governance factors when assessing investment opportunities and this analysis forms an integral part of the quality rating for all companies.
Then the team focuses on sustainable businesses and the company's ESG performance.
The research team evaluates companies on the basis of quality and price. Next, the team assigns each company a proprietary overall and also an ESG-quality rating ranging from 1 to 5 (1 indicating leaders and 5 indicating laggards).
The team prefers companies rated 3 or better on both the overall and ESG-quality rating. In the overall quality sleeve, the manager evaluates a company’s growth prospects and balance sheet strength.
In the ESG-quality sleeve, the manager evaluates the company’s ownership structures, governance and management quality as well as potential environmental and social risks.
The fund will not invest in companies that have failed to uphold one or more principles of the UN Global Compact, an industry tied to controversial weapons; or a revenue contribution of 10% or more from tobacco manufacturers; or from the extraction of unconventional oil and gas, or a revenue contribution from thermal coal extraction.
Then the research team constructs a portfolio of companies based on their long-term growth outlook. The fund may invest in securities of any market sector and may hold a significant amount of securities of companies, from time to time, within a single sector.
The fund may also invest in non-U.S. companies, including primarily Canadian companies