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European (ex UK) All Cap

European (ex UK) All Cap

Investing in 30-45 companies in Europe (excluding the UK), the strategy was launched in January 2022. 

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This document is a financial promotion for the Stewart Investors European (ex UK) All Cap Strategy intended for retail clients and professional clients in the UK only. 

Within the EU/EEA and Switzerland, the European (ex UK) All Cap strategy is only available to investors via a segregated mandate account.

Investing involves certain risks including:

  • The value of investments and any income from them may go down as well as up and are not guaranteed. Investors may get back significantly less than the original amount invested.
  • Currency risk: the Fund invests in assets which are denominated in other currencies; changes in exchange rates will affect the value of the Fund and could create losses. Currency control decisions made by governments could affect the value of the Fund's investments and could cause the Fund to defer or suspend redemptions of its shares.
  • Specific region risk: investing in a specific region may be riskier than investing in a number of different countries or regions. Investing in a larger number of countries or regions helps spread risk.
  • Smaller companies risk: investments in smaller companies may be riskier and more difficult to buy and sell than investments in larger companies

Where featured, specific securities or companies are intended as an illustration of investment strategy only, and should not be construed as investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

For a full description of the terms of investment and the risks please see the Prospectus and Key Investor Information Document.

If you are in any doubt as to the suitability of our funds for your investment needs, please seek investment advice.

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We invest in companies that we consider to be the very best sustainability companies in Europe. These businesses have strong and competitive franchises, exceptional people and distinctive cultures, and resilient financials. Individually and collectively they are solving difficult problems, meeting critical needs, and helping bring about a more sustainable future.

By focusing on the highest quality and best sustainability companies in Europe, we believe we can offer an exciting portfolio that stands out from the crowd.

For European investors this strategy is available in our VCC but due to regional differences includes UK companies.

Why invest in European companies?

World-leading sustainability companies

  • Europe has a large listed universe, including world-leading health care, clean energy, manufacturing and IT companies
  • Many of these companies have large and growing end-markets, including in many emerging economies, and a strong presence globally and locally

Exceptional people and cultures

  • Many companies are run by outstanding management teams and are often controlled by long-term stewards – foundations, families and entrepreneurs
  • Europe has a high concentration of companies with strong cultures, great franchises, and healthy balance sheets and financial characteristics

Sustainability tailwinds

  • Social norms, policies and regulations are often favourable for companies advancing sustainable technologies and solutions
  • European companies are known and respected for setting high standards

Strategy highlights: a focus on quality and sustainability

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    • Companies must contribute to sustainable development. Portfolio Explorer >

    • We invest in high-quality companies with exceptional cultures, strong franchises and resilient financials. How we pick companies >

    • We avoid companies linked to harmful activities and engage and vote for positive change. Our position on harmful products >

    • Our approach is long-term, bottom-up, high conviction and benchmark agnostic

    • We focus on capital preservation as well as capital growth – we define risk as the permanent loss of client capital

    Latest insights

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    Quarterly updates

    European (ex UK) All Cap strategy update: 1 January - 31 March 2025

    While it may be a new year, the events of the first quarter suggested that 2025 could see a continuation of the volatility, geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainties that characterised 2024. The silver lining was that it also brought a number of developments that could benefit the high-quality European companies we invest in. Those positive dynamics included an easing of Germany’s fiscal debt brake, a willingness to cut excessive bureaucracy and a growing recognition of Europe’s need to become more self-sufficient. Together, these could help to stimulate demand across a range of sectors.

    Over the course of the quarter, we added three new companies to the portfolio. The first was Axfood (Sweden: Consumer Staples) which operates a diverse range of food retailers across Sweden. Its brands include Willys (a discounter), Hemköp (mid-range) and the recently acquired hypermarket chain City Gross. After a long period of investment in an automated fulfilment centre, we see the potential for Axfood’s margins to expand and for sales growth to accelerate.

    The second new holding was L’Oréal (France: Consumer Staples), which has a broad portfolio of well-known beauty and skincare brands. Under the stewardship of the Bettencourt Meyers family, its long-tenured management team has repeatedly shown its ability to identify, acquire and integrate new brands and reinvest in their long-term growth. The result is a business with impressive pricing power and resilient cash generation. Around 40% of L’Oréal’s sales come from skincare and sun protection but its focus is shifting to treatments for dermatological conditions such as psoriasis, dermatitis and acne1.

    The third new holding was SKF (Sweden: Industrials), one of the world’s largest manufacturers of ball bearings. It is currently transforming its business and will soon spin off its (lower margin) automotive business. It is stewarded by the Wallenberg family, with whom we were already familiar through their association with our existing holdings in Atlas Copco and Epiroc.

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    During the quarter, we made opportunistic additions to some of our existing holdings. Brake manufacturer Knorr-Bremse (Germany: Industrials) continues to improve its operational efficiency and potential for growth, while Handelsbanken (Sweden: Financials) is investing in technology to further enhance its relationship-centric growth model. We also added to the holding in Wolters Kluwer (Netherlands: Industrials), a diversified provider of business services and software, when its share price weakened following the (planned) departure of its long-tenured chief executive. We remain excited about its potential to grow through using AI-based tools to maximise the value of its business data and insights.

    We made three complete sales over the quarter. In the case of Belimo (Switzerland: Industrials), investors’ excitement about demand for its actuators, which make the cooling systems in data centres more efficient, had seen the valuation of its shares running run ahead of the business fundamentals. We also sold Tecan (Switzerland: Health Care) and Sartorius (Germany: Health Care). A protracted post-Covid destocking cycle complicated the task of assessing the progress of these two companies but the shape of the cycle is now becoming clearer and, as a result, we prefer to consolidate our exposure into the higher-quality businesses in this area that we already hold, such as Roche (Switzerland: Health Care), DiaSorin (Italy: Health Care) and bioMérieux (France: Health Care).

    Elsewhere, we trimmed a number of holdings in response to the elevated expectations their valuations implied. These included architectural software provider Nemetschek (Germany: Information Technology) and semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies (Germany: Information Technology), where the impact of changes in trade policies and tariffs remains uncertain.

    As the geopolitical and economic landscape continues to evolve, we remain focused on finding high-quality companies that are run by exceptional people which we believe have the ability to thrive under a broad range of scenarios.

    [1] Source: L’Oréal Annual Report 2024.

    Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Named new investments disclosed relate to holdings with a portfolio weight over 0.5%. It is not a recommendation or solicitation to purchase or invest in any fund. Differences between the representative account-specific constraints, currency or fees and those of a similarly managed fund or mandate would affect results.

    Download a PDF copy

    Select Strategy update and/or Proxy voting to produce a report. You can then download a copy of the report by clicking on the button.

    You can build a bespoke report for all our strategies on the full Quarterly update report.

    Stewart Investors Quarterly Client Update Q1 2025

    1 January - 31 March 2025

    Quarter update

    Risk factors

    This material is a financial promotion for the Stewart Investors strategies – Asia Pacific and Japan All Cap, Asia Pacific Leaders, Asia Pacific All Cap, European All Cap, European (ex UK) All Cap, Global Emerging Markets All Cap, Global Emerging Markets Leaders, Indian Subcontinent All Cap, Worldwide All Cap and Worldwide Leaders – and is intended for professional clients only in the UK, Switzerland and EEA and professional clients elsewhere where lawful.

    Within the EU/EEA and Switzerland, the European (ex UK) strategy is only available to investors via a segregated mandate account.

    Investing involves certain risks including:

    • The value of investments and any income from them may go down as well as up and are not guaranteed. Investors may get back significantly less than the original amount invested.
    • Emerging market risk: Emerging markets tend to be more sensitive to economic and political conditions than developed markets. Other factors include greater liquidity risk, restrictions on investment or transfer of assets, failed/delayed settlement and difficulties valuing securities.
    • Indian Subcontinent risk: although India has seen rapid economic and structural development, investing there may still involve increased risks of political and governmental intervention, potentially limitations on the allocation of the strategy’s capital, and legal, regulatory, economic and other risks including greater liquidity risk, restrictions on investment or transfer of assets, failed/delayed settlement and difficulties valuing securities.
    • Specific region risk: investing in a specific region  may be riskier than investing in a number of different countries or regions. Investing in a larger number of countries or regions helps spread risk.
    • Currency risk: the strategies invest in assets which are denominated in other currencies; changes in exchange rates will affect the value of the strategies and could create losses. Currency control decisions made by governments could affect the value of the strategies’ investments and could cause the strategies to defer or suspend redemptions of shares.
    • Concentration risk: the European Sustainability and Worldwide Leaders Sustainability strategies referred to in this material invest in a relatively small number of companies which may be riskier than a strategy that invests in a large number of companies.
    • Smaller companies risk: investments in smaller companies may be riskier and more difficult to buy and sell than investments in larger companies.

    Where featured, specific securities or companies are intended as an illustration of investment strategy only, and should not be construed as investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

    If you are in any doubt as to the suitability of our strategies for your investment needs, please seek investment advice.

    Investment philosophy

    • We are stewards: Our role is to allocate society’s capital to productive uses, in accordance with our Hippocratic Oath
    • We are long term: Our time horizon is measured in years, not weeks, and we value companies accordingly
    • We invest only in companies contributing to a more sustainable future: We engage constructively as owners to help companies on their sustainability journeys
    • We invest only in high-quality companies: We seek out companies with exceptional cultures, strong franchises and resilient financials
    • We believe capital preservation is important for capital growth: We define risk as the possibility of the permanent loss of client capital

    Investment objective

    To generate attractive long-term, risk-adjusted returns by investing in the shares of high-quality companies that are particularly well positioned to contribute to, and benefit from sustainable development.

    Important information

    This material is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute investment or financial advice and does not take into account any specific investment objectives, financial situation or needs. This is not an offer to provide asset management services, is not a recommendation or an offer or solicitation to buy, hold or sell any security or to execute any agreement for portfolio management or investment advisory services and this material has not been prepared in connection with any such offer. Before making any investment decision you should conduct your own due diligence and consider your individual investment needs, objectives and financial situation and read the relevant offering documents for details including the risk factors disclosure. Any person who acts upon, or changes their investment position in reliance on, the information contained in these materials does so entirely at their own risk.

    We have taken reasonable care to ensure that this material is accurate, current, and complete and fit for its intended purpose and audience as at the date of publication but the information contained in the material may be subject to change thereafter without notice.

    No assurance is given or liability accepted regarding the accuracy, validity or completeness of this material.

    To the extent this material contains any expression of opinion or forward-looking statements, such opinions and statements are based on assumptions, matters and sources believed to be true and reliable at the time of publication only. This material reflects the views of the individual writers only. Those views may change, may not prove to be valid and may not reflect the views of everyone at First Sentier Investors.

    Past performance is not indicative of future performance. All investment involves risks and the value of investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and you may not get back your original investment. Actual outcomes or results may differ materially from those discussed. Readers must not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there is no certainty that conditions current at the time of publication will continue. 

    References to specific securities (if any) are included for the purpose of illustration only and should not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell the same. Any securities referenced may or may not form part of the holdings of First Sentier Investors’ portfolios at a certain point in time, and the holdings may change over time.

    References to comparative benchmarks or indices (if any) are for illustrative and comparison purposes only, may not be available for direct investment, are unmanaged, assume reinvestment of income, and have limitations when used for comparison or other purposes because they may have volatility, credit, or other material characteristics (such as number and types of securities) that are different from the funds managed by First Sentier Investors.

    Selling restrictions

    Not all First Sentier Investors products are available in all jurisdictions.

    This material is neither directed at nor intended to be accessed by persons resident in, or citizens of any country, 

    or types or categories of individual where to allow such access would be unlawful or where it would require any registration, filing, application for any licence or approval or other steps to be taken by First Sentier Investors in order to  comply with local laws or regulatory requirements in such country.

    About First Sentier Investors

    References to ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ are references to First Sentier Investors, a global asset management business which 

    is ultimately owned by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG). Certain of our investment teams operate under the trading names FSSA Investment Managers, Stewart Investors and Realindex Investments, all of which are part of the First Sentier Investors Group.

    This material may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part, and in any form or by any means circulated without the prior written consent of First Sentier Investors.

    We communicate and conduct business through different legal entities in different locations. This material is communicated in:

    • United Kingdom by First Sentier Investors (UK) Funds Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (reg. no. 2294743; reg office Finsbury Circus House, 15 Finsbury Circus, London EC2M 7EB).
    • European Economic Area by First Sentier Investors (Ireland) Limited, authorised and regulated in Ireland by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI reg no. C182306; reg office 70 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland; reg company no. 629188).
    • Other jurisdictions, where this document may lawfully be issued, by First Sentier Investors International IM Limited, authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (reg. no. 122512; reg office 23 St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh, EH2 1BB; regcompany no. SC079063).

    To the extent permitted by law, MUFG and its subsidiaries are not liable for any loss or damage as a result of reliance on any statement or information contained in this document. Neither MUFG nor any of its subsidiaries guarantee the performance of any investment products referred to in this document or the repayment of capital. Any investments referred to are not deposits or other liabilities of MUFG or its subsidiaries, and are subject to investment risk, including loss of income and capital invested.

    © First Sentier Investors Group

    Full Quarterly client update >>

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    Proxy voting

    European (ex UK) All Cap proxy voting : 1 January - 31 March 2025

    Proxy voting by country of origin

    Proxy voting by proposal category

    During the quarter there were 188 resolutions from 10 companies to vote on. On behalf of clients, we voted against nine resolutions.

    We voted against a proposal on transaction of business at Sika, as they did not provide enough information about the proposal. We wanted to avoid giving them unrestricted decision-making power without sufficient clarity. (one resolution) 

    We voted against three shareholder proposals at Handelsbanken regarding banking identification security improvements and changes to dividend payment schedules. We believe management is best positioned to manage security risks and decide on dividend payments. (three resolutions) 

    We voted against a shareholder proposal requesting shareholder approval to recruit and appoint candidates to the shareholders committee at Ringkjøbing Landbobank. The committee is a channel for recruiting board members, and we believe the board are best placed to identity the skills and experiences required for this committee and future board appointments. (one resolution) 

    We voted against executive remuneration and the remuneration report at Roche as we believe executive pay is high and there is a lack of metrics to determine and/or justify those awards. We voted against a proposal on transaction of business as the company did not provide enough information about the proposal. We wanted to avoid giving them unrestricted decision-making power without sufficient clarity. (four resolutions).

    Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Proxy voting chart numbers may not add to 100 due to rounding. SHP means: Shareholder Proposal.

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    Portfolio Explorer

    If you are unable to view the portfolio explorer, please re-open in Google Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera. IE11 is not supported.

    For illustrative purposes only. Reference to the names of example company names mentioned in this communication is merely for explaining the investment strategy and should not be construed as investment advice or investment recommendation of those companies. Companies mentioned herein may or may not form part of the holdings of Stewart Investors. Holdings are subject to change.

    Certain statements, estimates, and projections in this document may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon Stewart Investors’ current assumptions and beliefs, in light of currently available information, but involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual actions or results may differ materially from those discussed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. There is no certainty that current conditions will last, and Stewart Investors undertakes no obligation to correct, revise or update information herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

    Source: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. Securities mentioned are all investee companies* from representative Asia Pacific All Cap Strategy, Asia Pacific & Japan All Cap Strategy, Asia Pacific Leaders Strategy, European All Cap Strategy, European (ex UK) All Cap Strategy, Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders Strategy, Global Emerging Markets Leaders Strategy, Global Emerging Markets All Cap Strategy, Indian Subcontinent All Cap Strategy, Worldwide All Cap Strategy and Worldwide Leaders Strategy accounts as at 31 March 2025. *Assets that the strategies may hold which an active decision has not been made, and sustainability assessment does not apply, include cash, cash equivalents, short-term holdings for the purpose of efficient portfolio management and holdings received as a result of mandatory corporate actions. Holdings of such assets will not appear on Portfolio Explorer.

    The Stewart Investors supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The full list of SDGs can be found on the United Nations website.

    Source for Climate Solutions and impact figures: © 2014–2025 Project Drawdown (drawdown.org). Source for Human Development Pillars: Stewart Investors investment team.

    Source for climate solutions and human development analysis and mapping: Stewart Investors investment team. Contributions are defined by the team as demonstrable contributions to any solution, either direct (directly attributable to products, services or practices provided by that company), or enabling (supported or made possible by products or technologies provided by that company).

    Investment terms

    View our list of investment terms to help you understand the terminology within this website.

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