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IMPORTANT NEWS: Transition of investment management responsibilities
First Sentier Group, the global asset management organisation, has announced a strategic transition of Stewart Investors' investment management responsibilities to its affiliate investment team, FSSA Investment Managers, effective Friday, 14 November close of business EST.
Worldwide Leaders
The strategy was launched in November 2013. It invests in the shares of between 30-60 global companies.
A Leaders strategy generally invests in market leading companies which means, for this strategy, that they are valued at over US$5 billion.
You can see all of the companies that this strategy invests in by filtering on our Portfolio Explorer tool.
- We define investment risk as losing clients’ money – this means we focus on looking after your money as well as growing it
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Quarterly updates
Strategy update: Q4 2025
Worldwide Leaders strategy update: 1 October - 31 December 2025
In the fourth quarter, First Sentier Group announced a strategic transition of Stewart Investors' (SI) investment management responsibilities to its affiliate investment team, FSSA Investment Managers (FSSA), effective 14 November 2025. Importantly, the funds will continue to be run in line with their existing investment objectives and policies. In relation to the Worldwide and Worldwide Leaders strategies, Nick Edgerton and Lorna Logan continue as lead portfolio managers.
In the fourth quarter, global equities capped off a robust year with steady gains, driven in part by easing inflation expectations of continued central bank policy easing. The weaker US dollar encouraged a slight broadening of performance as capital flowed a little more into cyclical sectors, and non-US developed markets.
Our relative performance suffered mostly due to weakness in our larger long term investments in US technology businesses Arista Networks and Fortinet, along with US heating, ventilation and air conditioning business Watsco, and insurance brokerage Brown and Brown. Our performance was supported by non-US investments, including Korean memory chip maker and consumer electronics business Samsung which continues to ride the demand wave for memory, along with Brazilian electric motor business WEG, German rail business Knorr-Bremse and long term Indian tractor business Mahindra and Mahindra. These contributions, positive and negative, highlight the shift in capital from the US into other markets.
Over the quarter, we added two new companies including Alcon, a US-listed eye-health company which specialises in transforming the treatment of eye conditions. Alcon experienced a weak first three quarters of the year following soft market conditions in its surgical franchise and intense competition in the US implantable market. This weakness provided the opportunity for our investment. The other new addition is Cintas, a Cincinnati based, 100 year old family backed and owned business now overseen by its fourth generation. It’s a customer service business backed by a logistics business, harnessing localised routes and relationships to sell uniform rental and sales, facility services, workplace first aid consumables and safety services, which can all be scaled nationally.
We exited four companies, including ABB for valuation reasons with euphoria behind many electrification businesses. We exited Sysmex due to concerns around rising competition in China for diagnostics. We also exited Alibaba due to increasing geopolitical risks, not helped by accusations that Alibaba is providing technological support for the Chinese military. At the same time there are signs that the level of profit the company will be allowed to make may be limited by the government, with its recent AI access point being released free for users.
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.
Strategy update: Q3 2025
Worldwide Leaders strategy update: 1 July - 30 September 2025
On one level, the third quarter saw significant changes at Stewart Investors. After acting as careful stewards of our clients’ capital over many years, three of our colleagues stepped back from their portfolio-management responsibilities in August and left the business.
As part of those changes, Nick Edgerton has been appointed as the new lead manager of the Worldwide Leaders strategy. As the existing lead portfolio manager of our Worldwide All Cap strategy, Nick has been involved in analysing companies and discussing the construction of Stewart Investors’ worldwide strategies since he joined the investment team in 2012. He will continue to apply the same principles to managing this strategy that have guided it since its launch, working as part of the same tight-knit group of investment analysts and drawing on the same common pool of investment ideas.
The artificial intelligence boom: are the risks of disappointment growing?
It has been nearly three years since ChatGPT astonished the world and triggered a wave of investment in the infrastructure needed to support the rollout of artificial intelligence (AI) models. During that time, the share prices of the companies that are paying for much of that infrastructure – such as Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon – have risen sharply. Companies who provide the components of the data centres required to train and run the AI models have also enjoyed significant gains. Nvidia has the highest profile of these companies but the past three years have also seen sharp gains for the likes of TSMC, which manufactures advanced semiconductors, and Arista Networks, which makes networking switches.
One consequence of this investment boom is that movements in stock market indices have come to be dominated by the fortunes of fewer and fewer stocks. This has happened before, typically when the excitement surrounding a new technology has sparked an infrastructure boom. A similar thing happened with railways in the nineteenth century and then again with the internet 25 years ago. As investors become increasingly excited about the potential for a new technology to transform corporate profits, they are prepared to pay an increasingly large premium to buy the shares of the companies they believe will benefit from it. As those companies’ share prices rise, they come to represent a larger and larger proportion of stock market indices. In this instance, the market is becoming increasingly dependent on the continuation of the AI boom and the risks of disappointment are growing.
The long-term beneficiaries of today’s AI boom will not necessarily be the companies spending billions building data centres
In the current boom, one risk is that real-world limitations will eventually restrict the number of data centres that can be built. This was highlighted to us by the management teams of some of the companies we met during our recent trip to Texas, one of the states at the centre of the data centre boom.
Another risk is the uncertainty about who will benefit the most from the infrastructure investments being made today. It might not necessarily be the companies that are currently investing billions of dollars in building data centres. During the railway and internet booms, the long-term winners were the businesses that found ways to use the new infrastructure in ways that weren’t fully appreciated at the time it was being built. For example, the profits that companies like Netflix are making today arguably rest on the lossmaking investments that telecoms companies made in laying fibre optic cables during the last technology boom.
We invest in a diverse range of companies that are benefitting from a broad range of long-term trends
How should long-term investors approach the risks, opportunities, and uncertainties being presented by the AI boom? Although we invest in the shares of some companies that are benefitting from the current wave of investment in AI and data centres, we have taken great care not to put all of our eggs in one basket. Our investment philosophy is based on the premise that the best way to deliver long-term returns to our clients is to invest in a blend of companies meeting a broad range of unmet needs.
We established two new positions during the quarter.
Singtel (Singapore: Communication Services) has significant shareholdings in various telecoms businesses across Asia, including the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Australia in addition to its home territory of Singapore. That its share price looks low relative to its profits suggests that it remains deeply out of favour among investors despite the fact that, under the leadership of Kuan Moon Yeun, we believe it is better managed than it has been for some time. Since 2021, he has brought more focus to the company by selling off businesses bought by the previous management team in areas such as digital marketing and online advertising. Telecoms companies tend not to grow quickly but they do deliver cash in a steady and predictable manner.
We also brought W.W. Grainger (United States: Industrials). Grainger is a leading distributor of maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) products. It serves a diverse range of sectors including manufacturing, government, and healthcare. The breadth of its product range, its excellent logistics and the strength of its relationships should enable it to continue to grow at the expense of its smaller competitors. To fund this addition, we sold the holding in MonotaRO (Japan: Industrials). MonotaRO is in a similar business to Grainger, by whom it is partly owned. This switch gives the portfolio exposure to growth in the US as well as Japan.
Elsewhere, we topped up our existing position in cybersecurity specialist Fortinet (United States: Information Technology). Its share price fell in August when it signalled that the short-term boost to sales from upgrading its customers’ firewalls could tail off sooner than investors had realised. The company responded to the fall by signalling it would buy back more of its shares. This suggests that it thinks the weakness in its share price represents a great buying opportunity.
We also added to Synopsys (United States: Information Technology) after its share price fell when its short-term profits fell short of expectations. We believe the long-term drivers of its growth remain in place. To help fund these additions, we sold holdings in Beiersdorf (Germany: Consumer Staples) and Hoya (Japan: Health Care).
We focus on delivering returns over the long term, rather than taking risks to pursue short-term gains
Fear of missing out – ‘FOMO’ – is not confined to the young; it is a natural human instinct. We are conscious that our style of investing, which is designed to deliver returns over the long term (a decade or longer) and to minimise losses, has not kept pace with returns from global indices over the short term. We don’t believe that means our philosophy of investing in high-quality companies for extended periods of time has suddenly ceased to work. At a time of change in markets, trade and geopolitics, our underlying approach remains consistent: we continue to focus on generating attractive returns over the long term rather than attempting to keep pace with the wider market through every short-term period. We look forward to demonstrating the fruits of that approach over the years and decades to come.
Case Study: Arista Networks
Listing: New York Stock Exchange
Market cap: USD183 billion1
Held since: 2020
Company description
Arista Networks’ software and hardware connects networks, data centres and cloud-computing nodes.
Investment rationale
Arista was founded in 2004 by three engineers who recognised that the market for networking switches was dominated by sleepy incumbents churning out predictable products with minimal upgrades. They set out to disrupt this industry by creating high-performance, low-latency ethernet switches specifically designed for cloud computing and data centres. Having experienced firsthand how Cisco Systems operated, they knew that they could create a company that did things differently in its focus on innovation, in its operating model, and in its culture.
At the time of its launch in 2010, the company’s first product had five times the throughput of its closest competitor.2 It then enhanced its lead by pursuing a programme of innovation and improvement, made possible by investing heavily in research and development.
Two early decisions taken by the company’s founders provided a platform for its subsequent growth. The first was to integrate a proprietary operating system, Arista EOS, into its hardware. This allows its customers to see what is happening across their networks in a single image and to fix issues seamlessly and with minimal network downtime. Arista built that software using open-source (Linux) code, allowing new best-of-breed software to be incorporated as it becomes available.
Their second key decision was to use microchips made by third parties rather than developing their own. By using off-the-shelf components and outsourcing manufacturing to local fulfilment centres, Arista can keep costs down, bring new innovations to market quickly, and benefit from industry-wide improvements in chip size, power usage and computing capacity.
Although two of the company’s three founders remain involved today, they made an early decision to hire a chief executive to run it. Jayshree Ullal joined in 2008, two years before Arista’s first product launch and six years before its IPO (initial public offering). She has been the key to establishing and nurturing its culture of customer focus, innovation, frugality, and flat hierarchies. This combination of a longstanding chief executive supported by the company’s founders has created an ownership mentality that has cascaded through the workforce, helped by its flat structure and lean workforce. Employees are accountable and empowered to openly address and fix problems.
One part of that culture is a refusal to sacrifice quality for speed; Arista will not ship a new product until its engineers are happy that it will operate as expected. This maintains its reputation for reliability, helps it to win repeat business, and supports its long-term partnerships with its two largest customers, Microsoft and Meta, who together account for approximately a third of its revenues.3 And although that means it faces a degree of concentration risk, it also makes it a direct beneficiary of the investments these companies are making in building artificial intelligence (AI) data centres.
Arista is taking steps to mitigate that concentration risk by diversifying its customer base within the US, which currently accounts for approximately three quarters of its revenues, as well as by expanding overseas.4 For example, it recently launched a ‘Make in India’ initiative, through which it is investing in local manufacturing, developing skills, and building centres of excellence in ‘AI for networking’ across the country.
Arista’s strong cash-flow generation, its high profit margins and low debts give it the financial firepower to continue investing in research and development while also acquiring companies to benefit from their technology and engineering expertise. This continual reinvestment in innovation should help it to stay ahead of the pack while exploiting the significant areas of potential growth in front of it.
What could go wrong? / Risks
The clearest risk is posed by customer concentration; any difficulties in Arista’s relationships with either Microsoft or Meta could lead to a fall in its revenues and potential reputational issues. Ongoing price deflation, meanwhile, means that it must innovate continually – and run harder – to increase sales and profits. Finally, there is always the risk that an acquisition goes badly, affecting the company’s culture and causing it to lose its leadership in innovation.
[1] Source: FactSet as at 1 October 2025.
[2] Source: Arista: Arista 7500 - Sets New Standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet Networking https://www.arista.com/en/company/news/press-release/280-pr-20100419-01.
[3] Source: Arista Networks 10-Q 6 August 2025.
[4] Source: FactSet as of 1 October 2025.
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.
Strategy update: Q2 2025
Worldwide Leaders strategy update: 1 April - 30 June 2025
Draw a circle around Asia on a world map and it would look relatively small in comparison to the rest of the globe. That small circle, however, would contain more than four billion people1 and some of the world’s fastest-growing economies: India, China, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Reflecting the continent’s strong culture of equity investment, it also boasts a disproportionately large share of companies raising capital through initial public offerings (IPOs)2. Stewart Investors’ heritage of investing in Asian markets means we are well-equipped to tap into the opportunities this presents.
This quarter, we invested in Trip.com (China: Consumer Discretionary), a multinational travel agency that owns several platforms including MakeMyTrip and Skyscanner. Trip.com has survived a gruelling decade of intense competition in China, emerging as the country’s leading online travel agency, with a 60% market share3. We also believe it has an outstanding culture, putting its customers first while also taking care of more than 40,000 employees4. This should allow it to maintain its leadership in domestic tourism while expanding internationally as a growing number of Chinese tourists venture overseas5.
The quarter’s second key addition was Chubb (United States: Financials). Founded in 1882, Chubb is a world-leading insurer, operating in over 50 countries. It takes a cautious approach to writing new business, being prepared to sacrifice sales today to protect its long-term profitability. This approach is at the core of Chubb’s business. Such cultures are rare and can only built with patience.
We continued to build our positions in Alibaba (China: Consumer Discretionary) and ABB (Switzerland: Industrials). We also increased our position in Arista Networks (United States: Information Technology), taking advantage of a spell of weakness in its share price.
We sold our holdings in six companies over the quarter. Copart (United States: Industrials) and Fastenal (United States: Industrials) remain high-quality businesses but their shares look less attractively priced than they once did. We sold Tata Consultancy Services (India: Information Technology) as its valuation left little room for error despite the current elevated level of uncertainty around trade. Similarly, we sold Expeditors (United States: Industrials) in the belief that any slowdown in world trade would present a challenge to its growth. Lastly, we sold Ashtead Group (United Kingdom: Industrials) and Rentokil Initial (United Kingdom: Industrials) after deciding that we had stronger investment ideas elsewhere.
A rapidly evolving security situation combined with rising trade tensions and the imposition of barriers to technology exports mean that our companies could face a different set of opportunities – and risks – in the coming decades. Despite this, we are confident that our long-term investment horizon and our philosophy of focussing on growing, high-quality companies whose shares trade at reasonable valuations will deliver attractive returns.
[1] Source: International Monetary Fund - World Economic Outlook April 2025.
[2] Source: ‘Hong Kong IPO boom challenges the city’s critics’ Financial Times 29 June 2025.
[3] Source: Bernstein China SMID Internet: Diamonds in the Sky...Initiating with Trip.com Group November 2024.
[4] Source: Trip.com – Annual report to 31 December 2024.
[5] Horizon Insight Closers to Chinese Markets: Trip.com (TCOM) Earnings Review 13 September 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.
Strategy update: Q1 2025
Worldwide Leaders strategy update: 1 January - 31 March 2025
“Only two things make up a railroad: a track and a locomotive.” Amid the constant news about tariffs, trade wars and global political realignment, this recent comment – by the chief financial officer (CFO) of one of our companies – provided a timely reminder that things are sometimes simple. It also underscored why we are glad that our focus is on seeking to understand individual companies rather than trying to predict global events. Through all the noise of the first quarter of 2025, we focused on finding companies with experience in navigating unpredictable political and economic conditions and who keep their eyes firmly fixed on their long-term goals.
This quarter saw a significant ‘first’ for Worldwide Leaders – its first investment in a Chinese company - Alibaba (China: Consumer Discretionary). We approached our assessment of Alibaba as we would with any company, by considering the quality of its people, its franchise and its financials. Alibaba is led by a highly capable management team that combines a private-sector mindset alongside alignment with the goals of the Chinese government. It is reinvesting cashflows from its mature retail business in building a new cloud business. It has plenty of cash and a share-buyback programme (when a company buys back its own shares) that is friendly to smaller shareholders. In our view, the combination of an attractive valuation with the potential for Alibaba’s technology to help China meet some of the development challenges it faces provides a strong investment case.
We also added a new position in ABB (Switzerland: Industrials). This high-quality engineering business is a market leader in electrification, motion and automation. Its motors, drives and transformers are a small but critical part of its customers’ overall budget, and the depth of the relationships ABB has fostered with them puts it in a strong competitive position. We believe the combination of increasing demand for electricity worldwide and the company’s focus on improving profits puts ABB in a good position to perform well over the next 10 years.
We continued to grow the size of our holding in a number of recent additions such as Brown & Brown (United States: Financials), NVR (United States: Consumer Discretionary) and Carlisle Companies (United States: Industrials). The attractive valuation of Samsung Electronics (South Korea: Information Technology) also encouraged us to add to our position.
During the quarter, we sold Costco (United States: Consumer Staples). This is still a high-quality company but the high valuation of its shares suggested that future returns may be lower. On a similar note, we also trimmed the size of our holdings in Fortinet (United States: Information Technology), Copart (United States: Industrials) and Watsco (United States: Industrials) due to high valuations. Rising global political risks led us to trim the size of our holding in TSMC (Taiwan: Information Technology).
We continue to find opportunities to invest in the shares of reasonably valued companies from around the world that we believe can (profitably) help to solve a range of development challenges. Our focus on individual companies allows us to capture those opportunities wherever they arise. At a time of rapid economic and political change, we continue to apply our investment philosophy consistently and to focus on the things that we believe matter over our investment timeframe. As for what comes next? Another comment from the CFO we quoted earlier sums up our view: “there’s only one way to go in rail, and that’s forward!”
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.
Portfolio Explorer
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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, 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 30 September 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. Not all strategies are available in all jurisdictions or to all audience types.
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
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Fund data and information
Fund prices and details
Click on the links below to access key facts, literature, performance and portfolio information for the funds and share classes available in this jurisdiction:
Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders (UK OEIC)
| Fund name | Fund type | Currency | Price | Daily change | Price date | Factsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders Class A (Acc) | OEIC | GBP | 817.95 | -1.02 | 13 Feb 2026 | |
| Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders Class B (Acc) | OEIC | GBP | 987.64 | -1.02 | 13 Feb 2026 |
Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders (Irish VCC/Offshore)
| Fund name | Fund type | Currency | Price | Daily change | Price date | Factsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders Class I (Acc) | Irish UCITs | USD | 24.24 | -1.33 | 13 Feb 2026 | |
| Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders Class III (G Acc) | Irish UCITs | USD | 46.93 | -1.33 | 13 Feb 2026 | |
| Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders Class III (Acc) | Irish UCITs | USD | 20.72 | -1.33 | 13 Feb 2026 | |
| Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders Class VI (Acc) | Irish UCITs | EUR | 10.45 | -1.16 | 13 Feb 2026 |
Share prices are calculated on a forward pricing basis which means that the price at which you buy or sell will be calculated at the next valuation point after the transaction is placed. Where a fund price is marked XD, this means that the fund is currently Ex-Dividend. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. The value of shares and income from them may go down as well as up and is not guaranteed. Please note that the yield quoted above is not the historic yield. It is considered that the yield quoted represents the current position of investments, income and expenses in the fund and that this is a more accurate figure. Investors may be subject to tax on their distribution. The yield is not guaranteed or representative of future yields. You should be aware that any currency movements could affect the value of your investment. The Funds within the First Sentier Investors Global Umbrella Fund plc (Irish VCC) are denominated in USD or EUR.
Strategy and fund name changes
As of end of 2024, please note that Stewart Investors strategies and the Funds within the UK First Sentier Investors ICVC, First Sentier Investors Global Umbrella Fund plc (Irish VCC) and First Sentier Investors Global Growth Funds (Singapore Unit Trust) have been renamed. Please refer to our note via the link below for further information.
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