Our U.K.-based team consists of a group of investment professionals, a portfolio engineer, a product specialist and a team assistant. We combine a top-down thematic overlay with rigorous company-level research to support three distinct Emerging Markets Equity disciplines:
- Core Quality
- Dividend / Value
- Small cap
All strategies benefit from one investment team and research platform. We pride ourselves on deep fundamental analysis and we incorporate material environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions. While stock selection is the main driver of both risk and returns, this is complemented by detailed thematic research which drives top-down positioning and ensures the portfolios are positioned in areas of long-term structural growth.
Diversity of thought
We strongly feel that our diversity is critical to our success. The team’s founder and head, Philippe Langham, has consciously hired people with backgrounds, personalities and ways of thinking different from his own. We have a strong culture of discussion and debate which helps bring different perspectives to the table when evaluating investment opportunities
Culture
We place a big emphasis on culture within our own team, and pride ourselves on having a highly open and collaborative environment. We apply this same criteria when looking at companies. We spend a lot of time evaluating company management, and engage on areas such as brand, employees and innovation, all of which we believe define the corporate culture of a firm.
Research focus
A key differentiator for the team is the breadth and depth of independent research that we do. We have built a strong research platform that has four key characteristics. It is long term, global, focused on management, and integrates material ESG factors. We focus on long term, secular themes as part of our top-down research, and have a detailed, systematic approach from a bottom-up perspective.
ESG
We believe that material ESG factors may have an impact on the risk-adjusted returns of our investments and as such, we:
- Integrate material ESG factors in our investment decisions1
- Identify companies that we believe have positive ESG characteristics
- Conduct long-term thematic and ESG research
- Engage with companies on material ESG issues
Investment themes
Our top-down positioning across all our portfolios continues to be driven by long-term themes. These themes are multi-decade global phenomena that have the power to endure economic cycles.
