Global equities strategies

Fund manager: John William Olsen

The is a core global equity proposition, investing in a concentrated portfolio of quality companies, with ‘economic moats’ which aim to protect their profitability and an element of change helping to drive their value.

• A core, concentrated portfolio of quality, primarily developed market-listed, companies, with environmental, social and governance (ESG) at the heart of the manager’s assessment of businesses.
• A long-term, low-turnover strategy where patience is key, taking advantage of short-term share-price weakness to invest in quality companies at attractive valuations.
• Strictly focused on valuation, waiting for short-term ‘disruptions’ which provide clear valuation opportunities before investing in a business.
• A dynamic investment framework, designed to help the fund cope in different market conditions, with a particular focus on risk.

Fund manager: Matthew Vaight

This strategy seeks to invest in emerging market companies whose long-term prospects are deemed undervalued. It is our belief that shareholder value creation, rather than economic growth, is what drives share prices over the long run. We believe that there is a strong link between a company’s return on capital and its valuation. Our investment approach therefore focuses on company fundamentals, in particular a firm’s level of return on capital and how that is reflected in the valuations of the shares. We also pay close attention to corporate governance practices to identify companies that are run in the interests of all their shareholders.

• A strategy focused on return on capital. We undertake rigorous fundamental analysis to identify companies that use capital efficiently to create value for their shareholders over time.
• A distinctive process and method of portfolio construction that is designed to deliver consistent performance across different market conditions by selecting stocks with distinct drivers of return on capital.
• An active, long-term value-oriented approach that seeks to identify mispriced opportunities by taking advantage of the short-term, sentiment-driven nature of emerging market investors.

Fund manager: Stuart Rhodes

This strategy follows an unconstrained approach in global equities with the aim of outperforming the MSCI AC World Index over the long term. The strategy also has an income objective of providing a rising income stream and a yield premium.

The team seeks to invest in companies with potential for long-term dividend growth. This approach is based on the fundamental belief that companies generating rising dividends, bought at sensible valuations, will deliver excellent total returns over time through the combination of income growth and capital growth. Dividends and share prices go hand in hand.

The strategy is designed to benefit from the following:

• The tailwind of dividend investing.
• A bottom-up approach focused on fundamental analysis and valuation.
• A disciplined process which selects stocks from three distinct categories of dividend growth: ‘quality’ (defensives), ‘assets’ (cyclicals) and ‘rapid growth’ (growth).

The process provides flexibility and allows the fund manager to invest outside the defensive stocks most commonly associated with dividend strategies. The outcome is a balanced portfolio which is designed to cope with a variety of market conditions. The strategy will usually hold around 50 stocks backed by conviction and a long-term time horizon of three to five years. Investors seeking income can receive distributions paid quarterly.

Fund manager: David Williams

This strategy takes a tried and tested investment approach and applies it to a global universe. The portfolio invests in struggling companies with the potential to restore themselves to health. M&G has been investing in recovery stocks since 1969 and as such has unrivalled experience of recovery scenarios. In this strategy, we are applying our tried and tested philosophy, our principles and our experiences, to a global universe. A clearly differentiated approach.

• The strategy invests in companies that are experiencing difficulties, but which show potential for recovery over the long term that is not recognised by the market.
• The focus is on finding mispriced risk by assessing the potential long-term strategic value of a business.
• We look at corporate recovery, not economic recovery.
• We invest in management teams that have a sound strategy to improve their companies, hopefully generating strong future cashflow growth. If successful, these companies should see their shares benefit from the dual effect of a higher stock market rating on higher earnings.

Fund manager: Aled Smith

This strategy uses an investment process based on the fundamental analysis of companies that the fund manager considers to be leading in their field, or have the potential to be leading in their field, in terms of improving return on capital through positive change, where the change is not yet reflected in the share price. The strategy may invest across a wide range of geographies, sectors and market capitalisations.

Stock selection is based upon:

• Rigorous screening and research to identify upward step changes in returns.
• Bottom-up analysis that avoids imposing top-down views: sector, country or currency selections do not drive stock picking.
• Assessment of management’s ability to allocate resources and capital; companies must concentrate resources on those business activities where they have an advantage relative to other companies and can create value.
• Consistent assessment of how a firm’s prospects are priced by the market.