Emerging Markets Specialist Stewart Investors Launches New Sustainable Strategy for U.S. Investors

NEW YORK, April 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Stewart Investors, a long-only equity specialist with $20.8 billion in assets under management worldwide as of Feb. 29, 2020, today introduced the Global Emerging Markets Sustainability Leaders strategy, accessible only in the United States to institutional investors and family offices via a co-mingled fund.  

The actively managed portfolio builds on the success of an existing Global Emerging Markets Sustainability All-Cap strategy offered by Stewart Investors since February 2009 to non-U.S. investors. The new strategy is managed by Jack Nelson, lead portfolio manager, and David Gait, co-manager. Based in Sydney, Australia, they are members of the Stewart Investors Sustainable Funds Group.

To date, more than 30 clients, including endowments, foundations, and family offices, plan to commit approximately $200 million to the new fund.

The U.S. strategy generally seeks to invest in companies with a market capitalization above $1 billion, but otherwise employs the same investment philosophy, process, team and focus on sustainable development as a key driver of performance as the existing All-Cap strategy. Both strategies are benchmarked against the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

The new strategy will invest in roughly 25-60 companies and while there is considerable overlap with the existing All-Cap portfolio,  it will be less restricted by capacity constraints, will have a more liquid portfolio, and will typically offer a more concentrated portfolio of securities. For the 10-year period ended Dec. 31, 2019, the All-Cap strategy outperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by 4.91 percentage points on an annualized basis, before fees.

"Our goal is to invest in companies that are well-positioned to deliver positive returns in the face of huge sustainable development challenges facing all countries today," Nelson said. "We believe the sustainable positioning of a company is a key indicator of quality and the best way to grow capital for our investors over the long term. We're excited to bring our emerging markets sustainable strategy to the United States. Amid significant ongoing market turbulence, we are pleased by the interest from investors thus far."

This new strategy is the second sustainability strategy offered by the Stewart Investors Sustainable Funds Group in the United States and the first devoted exclusively to emerging markets investments. 

About Stewart Investors

Stewart Investors is an active, long-only equity manager. Based in Edinburgh, the firm also has offices in London, Singapore, New York and Sydney. For more information, please visit: www.stewartinvestors.com.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Source for Stewart Investors Global Emerging Markets Sustainability Composite: Stewart Investors. Data is shown in USD and is gross of fees. Performance figures do not reflect the deduction of investment advisory fees. A client's return will be reduced by the investment fees. If a client placed $100,000 under management and a hypothetical gross return of 10% was achieved, the investment assets before fees would have grown to $259,374 in 10 years. However, if an advisory fee of 1% were charged, investment assets would have grown to $234,573, or an annual compounded rate of 8.9%. Source for benchmark: FactSet. Index returns are shown on a total return basis and gross of tax. Excess performance is calculated on an arithmetic basis.

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SOURCE Stewart Investors