The fund seeks capital appreciation in the long term by investing in companies across any size outside the United States.
The sub-adviser’s 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 invests in securities of companies in the U.S. and foreign countries.
The team looks for quality companies demonstrating durable growth characteristics.
As part of the process, the team combines a thematic approach to idea generation with bottom-up, fundamental company analysis.
Also, the team seeks to identify secular changes in the world that it believes will drive global growth for the next decade. These large scale structural themes are referred to collectively as MANTRA, namely Mass Affluence, New Technology, Restructuring, and Aging.
In addition, the economic characteristics that the team focuses on are high return on invested capital, good cash flow characteristics, high barriers to entry, dominant market share, a superior competitive position, talented management, and balance sheet strength.
The team also considers how industry dynamics, market trends, and general economic conditions may affect a company’s earnings outlook.
The team also focuses on high-quality companies whose future earnings power is not reflected in their current valuations.
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 fund may invest without limit in foreign securities, including American Depositary Receipts, and can invest in any country, including developing or emerging market countries.
However, the fund will invest in at least three countries (one of which may be the United States).
Typically, the fund invests in a number of different countries.
In addition, the fund may at times have significant exposure to one or more industries or sectors.
The fund may hold a portion of its assets in cash or cash equivalents.