The fund seeks capital appreciation 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 invests in securities of U.S. and foreign companies.
The team favors quality companies exhibiting durable growth characteristics.
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.
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 will invest in at least three countries (one of which may be the United States).
However, the fund can invest without limit in foreign securities in any country, including countries with developed or emerging markets.
Although the fund has the flexibility to invest across market capitalizations, it primarily invests in mid- and large-cap companies.