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Worldwide Sustainability
An unconstrained investment strategy that invests in companies across the world which are positioned to contribute to, and benefit from, sustainable development.
Download overviewOur Worldwide Sustainability strategy was launched in November 2012. It is an unconstrained investment strategy, by which we mean it is not restricted to certain countries, and is able to invest in between 40-60 companies all over the world. As with all of our strategies, we are interested in finding only the very best businesses; those with high quality management teams, franchises, and financials, that are well positioned to contribute to, and benefit from, sustainable development.
Strategy highlights: a focus on quality and sustainability
- 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
Quarterly updates
Strategy update: Q3 2024
Worldwide Sustainability strategy update: 1 July - 30 September 2024
The quarter has seen some market turbulence, driven by uncertainty over interest rates and geopolitical developments, as well as emerging questions over the ability of the largest technology stocks to continue their upwards trajectory. The strong focus on technology, and particularly artificial intelligence (AI), over the past year means that other sectors have been neglected. As a result, we believe there are many quality stocks that are now attractively priced for long-term growth, most of them addressing problems in the real world.
We bought four new positions during the quarter, all in the industrials sector, but with very different end customer markets and applications.
Rentokil Initial (United Kingdom: Industrials) is a global leader in pest control services, a necessary and critical health and hygiene service to secure homes, hospitals and businesses against disease and damage. Its business model is fundamentally local in nature and generates lots of cash through resilient, recurring sales. The management team is focused on growth by increasing the density of its route network, and so driving improvements in profitability and earnings.
Applied Industrial Technologies (United States: Industrials) is one of the largest distributors of industrial motion and control technologies in the United States. Its products are used in end applications such as power transmission, fluid power, flow control and other industrial processes that help its customers be more productive and efficient and do more with less. It has a strong brand, well-poised to leverage its scale and customer network for growth as the world becomes increasingly automated.
ESAB Corporation (United States: Industrials) sells gas control equipment, welding equipment and particularly the metal alloys that are required for welding. Welding is not only a foundation technology to support the modern world, without welding there would be no buildings or trains, but it also plays a key role in supporting the green transition through its use in wind turbines and other green infrastructure. Its strength in supplying the metal alloys means they generate a lot of cash from recurring sales, which supports its balance sheet and allows it to invest in new business opportunities.