WS Keyridge North American Fund

Essential features of the Fund

• The Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in the shares of companies which are incorporated or domiciled in North America, including real estate investment trusts (REITs).

• It can invest across different industry sectors and market capitalisations without limitation.

• It may also invest up to 20% of the assets by value in debt securities (such as corporate bonds, government and public securities), money market instruments, deposits and cash.

• Investment in collective investment schemes is limited to 10% of the assets by value.

• The Fund may use derivatives for the purpose of efficient portfolio management.

• Up to 25% of the Fund’s holdings by value may be used to generate additional income from stock lending.

For further details on the objective and investment policy, visit the Literature section to view full KIIDs and Prospectus.

How the Fund is managed

The Fund uses a blend of top-down macro views and bottom-up stock selection to identify investment ideas in which we have the highest conviction, in a flexible, pragmatic and mindful of prevailing investment and other market conditions, for example, employment, geopolitics and gross domestic product.

• Fundamental analysis

  Specific holdings are determined through research that is undertaken by the Keyridge’s equities team, including company visits and conferences. The US market is the largest in the world and is covered by UK standards, that may not capture exposure to specific changes in the US. The choice of investments takes account of trends and geographical locations, although these are not the primary focus.

• Sector selection

  Sector allocations are important in order to ensure balanced diversification. Typically, macro and market themes are considered in order to balance the portfolio across factors such as growth, cyclicality and defensiveness. Additionally, the desired exposure to trends such as in bond yields and commodity prices are key considerations. This approach to portfolio construction allows us to deliver a diversified source of return from both a capital and income perspective.

Reasons to recommend

• Top-down macroeconomic style

  The Fund is heavily influenced by the economic backdrop and its impact on stocks, sectors and markets. We all live in the real economy and it impacts everything we do. Similarly, our economic view is used to determine risk stance, sector positioning and the type of stocks held. Generally companies with low debt, strong cash flow and a high return on equity are favoured although this varies with the economic cycle.

• Strong contrarian bias

  The Fund constantly seeks misunderstood investments that have underperformed the market or sector. This often provides us with good entry points in terms of companies we already like which are purchased after the thesis has been revalidated.

• Style agnostic

  The Fund will invest across all sectors, stocks and styles dependent on investment opportunity, macroeconomic backdrop and valuation. It will not be unduly biased to any one thematic or style but instead respond to the investment opportunity as they present. The manager’s typically have skillsets in different sectors and styles which, aims to provide the best, combined result.