Our competitive edge rests on the combination of our Global Fundamental team’s structure within Liontrust and our flexible investment style. Liontrust provides a stable environment in which our fund portfolio managers operate, and our investment approach produces portfolios that aim to deliver long-term outperformance on a repeatable basis.
Active Management
Stock-driven. Share prices follow fundamentals over the long term. Through our proven investment approach, we expect to outperform over the long term, net of fees.
High conviction portfolio: We expect the portfolio to contain around 40 to 50 stocks. Holdings sizes reflect the conviction we have in each company and our assessment of the upside and downside potential of its share price.
Risk. We think of risk as permanent capital loss. To mitigate this, our analysis of a company’s valuation is the first line of defence. Our risk management process combines our depth of knowledge of the stocks in the portfolio, plus separate oversight by Liontrust’s Portfolio Risk Committee.
Flexible Investment Style
Open-minded approach. We do not have dogmatic style biases, such as ‘growth’ or ‘value’. We are also prepared to invest in companies that we identify as having scope for recovery through management change, business transformation or an improving business environment. We expect the profile of the portfolio to evolve, depending on our assessment of individual companies, and our reading of the economic and market background.
Disciplined, rigorous, fundamental research. In keeping with the stock-driven nature of the portfolio, typically approximately three quarters of our effort takes the form of in-depth stock research. The remainder is spent on macroeconomic and geopolitical analysis.
Full Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration. ESG-related considerations have financial implications for the portfolio’s holdings. We prioritise and engage our holdings on their key, material issues, many of which are ESG-related. The outcomes from our in-depth analysis and engagements help form our conviction level and investment decisions. In this way, ESG lies at the heart of our investment process.
Total Return Strategy
A focus on both capital growth and income. We take a total return approach: investor returns should derive over the long term from both capital appreciation and dividend income. We often prefer companies with organic investment opportunities: as such, we normally expect companies with growing profits – and share prices – to contribute to returns. We view income as an important component rather than the primary driver of investment return. This aligns with the Company’s twin objectives.
Long Term
Typical holding period of 3 to 5 years. This is an appropriate period to ensure that underlying corporate fundamentals drive investment returns. It is therefore also a sensible period over which to measure an active manager.
Gearing should enhance shareholder returns. One of the advantages of an investment trust is the ability to borrow to enhance equity returns. We therefore expect gearing to boost investment returns over time.
Capacity Management
Scale diseconomies. In our view, investment performance can rapidly suffer if assets under management become too large. We carefully manage capacity to ensure that the interests of existing clients take precedence over new clients. The approach ensures we retain a size advantage. It enables us to reposition the portfolio – and those of all our other clients – quickly and efficiently when required.
Deep Investment Resource With Global Perspective
A close-knit investment team. The team has been stress-tested across various market cycles.
Challenge and debate. This is encouraged within a structured risk control environment, with robust oversight processes. Team members own Liontrust equity and coinvest in the team’s investment strategies, which in turn underpins teamwork and collaboration.