Investment approaches
international equity
An actively managed strategy seeking to achieve capital growth from a portfolio of global securities, excluding those domiciled in the U.S.
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Benefits from a broad perspective owing to our global, thematic outlook
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Flexibility to deviate from the comparative index and to invest directly in a range of opportunities globally
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Stock selection driven by bottom-up proprietary research which incorporates environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis
Our philosophy and process
- The strategy is conviction-based with no sector constraints and few country constraints; the portfolio may invest in any country except the U.S. and has the scope to invest in emerging markets. A constantly evolving and forward-looking approach seeks to anticipate change, manage risk, and identify opportunities
- ESG considerations are integrated throughout the research process and via proprietary quality reviews, to ensure that any material issues are captured.
Every time we consider a security or look at an industry or country, it’s in the context of what’s happening across the world. We believe the investment landscape is shaped over the long term by some key trends, and we use a range of global investment themes to capture these.
State intervention
Authorities have engaged in ever-greater policy intervention and regulation to shore up economic growth. We believe ‘state intervention’ has increased misallocation of capital, caused volatility in markets and inflated asset prices – and we think that calls for a stock-specific approach.
Financialization
Cheap money has caused rapid growth in a sector already supported by deregulation. ‘Financialization’ investigates the implications of finance dominating economic activity, instead of serving it.
Net effects
The world has made the transition from connecting places to connecting people to connecting devices. The rapid rise in the ‘internet of things’ is transforming lifestyles and business. This creates winners and losers – our ‘net effects’ theme seeks to identify them.
Healthy demand
The industry for health-care products and services is growing rapidly. Ageing populations are fuelling demand in developed economies, and increasing incomes and changing lifestyles are creating new markets in emerging economies. ‘Healthy demand’ looks at the opportunities and the risks.
Investment team
Our International Equity strategy is managed by a team with a wide range of backgrounds and varied experience. Our global sector analysts and investment managers are located on a single floor in London, which helps to ensure that the investment process is flexible and opportunistic. Guided by our global investment themes, the team works together to identify opportunities and risks through research and debate.
- 21
- years' average investment experience
- 17
- years' average time at Newton
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Paul Markham
Portfolio manager, global equities
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Jeff Munroe
Investment leader, global equities
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Charles French
Head of Equity Opportunities
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Ben Smith
Portfolio manager, UK equities
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Yuko Takano
Portfolio manager, global equities
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Robert Marshall-Lee
Investment leader, emerging and Asian equities
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Simon Nichols
Portfolio manager, UK equities
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Sophia Whitbread
Portfolio manager, emerging and Asian equities
Strategy profile
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Objective
- To achieve long-term capital growth from investing in global equities, excluding U.S. securities
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Comparative index
- MSCI EAFE (NDR)
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Performance aim
- To outperform the comparative index by over 2% per annum
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Typical number of equity holdings
- 55 to 80
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Strategy size
- US$1.5bn (as at June 30, 2020)
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Strategy inception
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Composite inception: November 1, 1997
Quarterly factsheet
Facts on the strategy’s performance and positioning.
Responsible investment report
Stewardship activities (voting and engagement) for the last quarter and ESG metrics.
Quarterly video update: Q2 2020
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.