Every company in view. Every portfolio in check.
Our research reads the whole universe to one standard, and each company is read against everything else we know. Risk management is built into how each portfolio is constructed, and the whole portfolio is reviewed every week against what is happening across the universe. The portfolio managers make every decision.
Quality at every stage of corporate life. Held with patience.
Our philosophy has stayed consistent, while the research process has evolved as the tools have improved. We seek quality across the whole spectrum of corporate maturity, and look for two things the market tends to misjudge: quality that persists longer than expected, and reinvention before it is recognized.
- 01Evidence before opinionEvidence, judgment and valuation are recorded separately, so the evidence rolls up untouched by opinion and every view can be traced to it.
- 02Quality at every stageEach company is judged on what drives returns at its stage of corporate life.
- 03Valuation informsValuation sits alongside quality, momentum and capital allocation, as one input to every decision.
- 04Patient and attentiveHigh-conviction, long-term portfolios, with holdings and the universe monitored every week.
- 05Risk built inPosition size reflects risk as well as conviction, including trimming positions after strong price gains.
Evidence rolls up. Context flows back down.
Every piece of evidence rolls up. A company’s results update the view of its industry and value chain; those views feed the themes that run across them; themes and country views together form the wider view. And the view works in reverse. When a theme shifts or a country signpost is triggered, it reframes every company it touches, so read-across happens by design rather than by chance.
- 1Rolls upCompany evidence aggregates into industry, theme and country views, updated with each note.
- 2Primary sources firstEvery view is built on filings, results and transcripts, with each figure traced to its source.
- 3Flows back downA shift in a theme or a country signpost reframes every company it touches.
- 4KeptEach view is dated, so today’s view can be tested against what we saw before.
One record, read by the portfolio managers who decide.
Six disciplines. One record.
Each piece is a discipline in its own right, built to one standard and verified before it informs a decision. What connects them is that they sit in the same record, so each is read with the others in sight. Open any of the six to see how it works.
Company research
Each company is judged on its own evidence. Every note is drafted to our codified standard, with the evidence kept apart from judgment, and verified against its primary sources before it enters the research library. Each new note starts from the company’s earlier notes and records what has changed; the long-term thesis is kept separately and updated only when the evidence warrants. The corporate lifecycle framework gives every company a common, fundamental starting point.
The approachDepth that builds over time: fundamental research
Fundamental research
Thematic research
Themes cross conventional coverage boundaries. We follow a live set of themes across every country and industry they run through, reviewed every week: more than 100 tracked since February 2026, with themes added, merged and retired as the evidence changes. Evidence from one company is read against everything else we know about the theme.
- 1The complete value chainThe companies a theme touches are held in one view, in whichever industries and countries they sit.
- 2An integrated view of the themeThe evidence combines into a single assessment of what is driving the theme and where its pressure points are.
- 3Read-across throughout the chainWhen a company reports, the implications for its suppliers, customers and competitors are considered together.
- 4Followed through timeEach theme is tracked the same way for as long as it runs, so a view can be followed from first sighting to outcome.
Country and macro
Country views set the backdrop for the themes and the companies within them. Each carries signposts, the developments that would confirm or challenge it, checked later against what happened.
A view for every country
Each country we invest in has a standing view, refreshed with a quarterly report and kept on a dated record.
Tested against events
What would confirm or challenge each view is written down in advance, then checked against what later happened.
Grouped by how businesses work
Sectors are read through our own groupings, built around how the businesses in them actually make money.
Corporate lifecycle
Every company sits somewhere in its economic life, and what drives its returns depends on where. We place each company in one of five lifecycle stages, with financials classified separately. The evidence is refreshed every week, and within that map we look for two things the market tends to misjudge: quality that persists longer than expected, and the self-awareness and means to reinvent. It is a fundamental framework, rooted in corporate finance and applied consistently to every company.
The methodHow the classification works
The lifecycle framework
The evidenceWhy both are scarce
Persistence is uncommon. Reinvention is rarer still.
Five years on, fewer than half the companies in any stage are still there, so quality that lasts is the exception. Climbing back from a mature stage is harder again: it usually happens one stage at a time, and seldom in a single step.
Finding either before the market does is the opportunity, and it calls for evidence rather than narrative. The lifecycle framework follows the economics, not the story: a maturing grower is judged on returns and capital discipline, not on the growth it used to have. Because it rests on corporate finance first principles, measured in the data, the assessment stays consistent as a company changes.
| From | Start Up | Growth | Cash Cow | Fading | Restr. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start Up | 16% | 36% | 11% | 25% | 13% |
| Growth | 3% | 42% | 32% | 16% | 6% |
| Cash Cow | 2% | 24% | 45% | 23% | 5% |
| Fading Winner | 2% | 10% | 24% | 46% | 17% |
| Restructuring | 2% | 5% | 10% | 35% | 48% |
Valuation
We value a business three ways, using an intrinsic model, its peers and its own history, across bear, base and bull cases. Valuation informs our decisions alongside quality, momentum and capital allocation.
A range, not a point estimate
The portfolio manager decides, with valuation as one input.
Method only · no values or company examples are shown
Stewardship and ESG
Governance is assessed alongside the fundamental work, and engagement and proxy voting follow each mandate’s requirements. Stewardship and proxy voting policies are available on request.
One investment. Three lenses.
Every bottom-up investment is tested from three distinct angles. Alignment across them builds conviction. Divergence demands discipline and further research.
What does the data capture?
A weekly assessment of every company on quality, value creation and capital allocation. Applied consistently to every company.
- Consistency of quality over time
- Early detection when a company improves or deteriorates
The facts, before opinions.
Is the business model sustainable?
The research record: company notes written to one standard structure, with evidence kept apart from judgment, together with themes, country views and the daily facts.
- Competitive advantage, growth drivers and durability of returns
- Recognition of inflections that matter
Forward-looking judgment.
What is the market saying?
Technical and macro work, including third-party technical indicators, and the wider market debate around each thesis.
- Whether the market validates or challenges the thesis
- What it reveals about positioning risk
An external check.
Every decision is taken by the portfolio managers, recorded with the evidence behind it, and sized with risk in mind.
Risk management, built into construction. The whole portfolio, reviewed every week.
Limits designed in from the start
Each portfolio is constructed within limits set by its mandate: country and sector weights held within bands around the benchmark for emerging markets, and concentration with liquidity in mind for international small cap. Position size reflects risk as well as conviction, including trimming positions after strong price gains.
Set against what changed across the universe
Every week, each portfolio is reviewed in full against what happened across the universe: where it leans against its benchmark, which holdings’ evidence has moved, which companies are reporting, how each country’s macro backdrop has shifted and which themes are gaining or losing momentum. Concerns and opportunities are raised for the portfolio manager, who decides.
Every MondayThe weekly review, in sequence
- Exposures. Where the book leans against its benchmark, by country, sector, size and lifecycle stage.
- Holdings. What changed in the positions and their weights.
- Evidence changes. Which holdings moved on the fundamental and technical evidence.
- Trends. Whether those moves are a turn or noise.
- Book review. Concerns, opportunities, research that is behind events, and who reports this week.
- Idea pipeline. Candidates from the weekly screen to fill the gaps the review found.
The limits themselves, and how concerns are raised and resolved, are best discussed in person.
Discuss risk management with the portfolio managersControlled data. Supervised technology.
Research that draws on data and technology is only as sound as the controls around it. Ours are built into the system from the start.
Validated before use
Incoming data is reconciled against the prior period before anyone relies on it. Anything that does not reconcile is held back.
Monitored daily
Every scheduled process is monitored end to end, and exceptions are flagged the same day.
One source of record
Every figure, internal or external, comes from one validated source under one set of rules, so it is the same wherever it appears.
People decide
Language models draft and verify research. Every investment decision is made by our portfolio managers.
We use technology, including large language models, to read filings and results, and to draft, check and retrieve our research. Our company and country research is drafted with these tools to research standards codified from our collective investment experience, and is verified against its sources by a separate language model before it informs a decision. The tools do not make investment decisions: all investment decisions are made by our portfolio managers. Our investment philosophy and risk discipline are unchanged.