The fund seeks capital appreciation in the long term by investing in companies across any size 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 securities of emerging market companies, and in other instruments, such as shares of exchange-traded funds, that have economic characteristics similar to such securities.
The team considers a company to be an emerging market company if its principal securities trading market is in an emerging market country, or alone or on a consolidated basis it derives 50% or more of its annual revenue or profits from goods produced, sales made or services performed in emerging market countries.
Other factors in consideration for a company to be an emerging market company would be if it has at least 50% of its assets in emerging markets countries or it is organized under the laws of, or has a principal office in, an emerging market country.
Emerging market countries are countries that major international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, consider to be less economically mature than developed nations, such as the United States or most nations in Western Europe.
The team also considers emerging market countries are countries that are represented in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
Emerging market countries can include every nation in the world except the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and countries located in Western Europe.
In selecting securities for the portfolio, the research team focuses on high quality, attractively valued companies with improving operating performance.
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 typically holds securities of approximately 70-100 companies.
From time to time, the fund may invest a significant amount of its net assets in a particular country, such as the People’s Republic of China.
Also, the fund may invest in A Shares of companies incorporated in China, and may also invest in China through H Shares, which are shares of companies incorporated in China that are traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
