Strategy highlights

  • Enables investors to gain targeted exposure to long-term opportunities arising across food and agriculture-related industries worldwide
  • Long-term thematic approach identifies drivers of change, providing a framework for idea generation
  • Stock selection driven by bottom-up proprietary research which incorporates consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, issues and opportunities

Our philosophy and process

We have been considering themes as a key part of our investment process since our inception in 1978. Themes seek to identify the major areas of structural change in the world. This structural change can be political, economic, social, technological, or environmental; its impact will manifest across traditional economic sectors, and will be significant in magnitude and long-term in duration. Themes are a critical element of our idea-generation process and, alongside evaluation of fundamentals and ESG considerations, constitute a key component of our valuation of securities.

It is our view that significant areas of structural change, such as growing populations, changing consumer demand and well-known threats to the natural world, will drive unprecedented demand for new food and agriculture technological innovations across the global food supply chain for years to come. The Future Food strategy seeks to invest in companies that are well placed to thrive in providing such solutions.

  • Future Food Strategy

Investment team

Our Future Food strategy is managed by a team with a wide range of backgrounds and varied experience. Our investment team of research analysts and portfolio managers works together across regions and sectors, helping to ensure that our investment process is highly flexible. Guided by our global investment themes, we seek to identify opportunities and risks through research and debate.

Strategy profile

Objective

The strategy aims to achieve long-term capital growth by predominantly gaining exposure to companies located worldwide that are positioned to benefit from the investment opportunities associated with the demand for new food and agriculture technological innovations across the global food supply chain.

Performance benchmark

MSCI AC World NDR

Typical number of equity holdings

30-50

Strategy inception

January 2021

Your capital may be at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and investors may not get back the original amount invested.

Newton will make investment decisions that are not based solely on ESG considerations. Other attributes of an investment may outweigh ESG considerations when making investment decisions. The way that ESG considerations are assessed may vary depending on the asset class and strategy involved. The research team performs ESG Quality Reviews on equity securities prior to their addition to Newton’s Research Recommended List (RRL). ESG Quality Reviews are not performed for all fixed income securities. The portfolio managers may purchase equity securities that are not included on the RRL and which do not have ESG Quality Reviews. Not all securities held by Newton’s strategies have an ESG Quality Review completed prior to investment, although since 2020 it has been a requirement for all (single name) equity securities to have an ESG Quality Review before they are purchased for the first time.

Key investment risks

  • Objective/performance risk: There is no guarantee that the strategy will achieve its objectives.
  • Currency risk: This strategy invests in international markets which means it is exposed to changes in currency rates which could affect the value of the strategy.
  • Derivatives risk: Derivatives are highly sensitive to changes in the value of the asset from which their value is derived. A small movement in the value of the underlying asset can cause a large movement in the value of the derivative. This can increase the sizes of losses and gains, causing the value of your investment to fluctuate. When using derivatives, the Strategy can lose significantly more than the amount it has invested in derivatives.
  • Credit risk: The issuer of a security held by the strategy may not pay income or repay capital to the strategy when due.
  • Emerging markets risk: Emerging Markets have additional risks due to less-developed market practices.
  • Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and/or the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect (‘Stock Connect’) risk: The strategy may invest in China A shares through Stock Connect programmes. These may be subject to regulatory changes and quota limitations. An operational constraint such as a suspension in trading could negatively affect the strategy’s ability to achieve its investment objective.
  • Counterparty risk: The insolvency of any institutions providing services such as custody of assets or acting as a counterparty to derivatives or other contractual arrangements, may expose the strategy to financial loss.