Fund Objective

The fund's aim is to achieve long term capital growth.

View on Past Performance

During a highly volatile and dramatic month, emerging markets experienced significant losses.Healthcare was the best performer, while energy and materials suffered from the weakening outlook for global growth. We believe that liquidity will remain relatively tight. We are thus scrutinising the balance sheets of the companies in which we are invested and are weeding out any that do not pass certain criteria. Consequently, we have reduced the number of stocks in the portfolio to around 70.We have overweight positions in healthcare and telecoms, which should benefit from their defensive characteristics, an underweight in financials and an increasingly large underweight in industrials, an area that is clearly economically sensitive. We have reduced our exposure to materials, reflecting the deteriorating economic environment, and are now underweight in this sector.

Future Expectations

We are finding opportunities amid the market turbulence to buy very good quality franchises at very attractive prices. We are running a significantly higher cash position than we normally would, so that we can exploit these opportunities as they arise.

Fund Details