These costs, which are not reflected
in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Expense Example, affect the predecessor fund’s performance.
During its most recent fiscal period ended March 31, 2021, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
35% of the average value of its portfolio.
The Fund’s portfolio turnover rate may vary from year to year as well as within a year. For more information
regarding the predecessor fund, please see the discussion under Performance Information.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund primarily seeks to identify investment opportunities across international markets, including both
developed and emerging countries. It typically invests in equity securities of companies of all market
capitalizations domiciled in jurisdictions outside of the United States. The portfolio manager does not restrict
potential investments by market capitalization and the Fund may invest in small, mid and large capitalization companies.
The Fund typically invests in a small selection of companies the portfolio manager believes are high quality and financially strong, and that the portfolio manager believes have management
teams that run the business well operationally and allocate capital in a way that builds share value over time.
The portfolio manager seeks to invest in these companies when their stock prices are significantly less than the
portfolio manager’s estimate of their intrinsic values per share. The portfolio manager defines the “intrinsic value” of a business to mean the discounted value of the sum of all the free cash flows that can be generated by the business during its
remaining life. The Fund may invest in a variety of types of equity securities, including common stocks,
preferred stocks, convertible securities, rights and warrants.
The Fund’s universe of potential investments primarily includes companies domiciled in jurisdictions
where the portfolio manager believes reasonable business practices exist. In investing the Fund’s assets,
the portfolio manager focuses on countries with established rules of law and political systems that allow for transparent and unbiased enforcement of those laws, although there can be no assurance that the Fund’s assets will in all cases be
invested in countries that offer such protections. The Fund will primarily invest in companies domiciled in
Continental Europe, Japan, the United Kingdom, emerging Asian markets, the Americas (which typically excludes the
United States), Australia and New Zealand, and developing EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) countries. There
are no geographic limits on the Fund’s non-U.S. investments. The portfolio manager does not expect to
invest more than 35% of the Fund’s assets in securities of companies domiciled in emerging markets,
however, the Fund’s investments in emerging markets may exceed this amount depending on market opportunities. The Fund considers emerging markets to be markets located in countries that have an emerging stock market as defined by MSCI, countries
or markets with low- to middle-income economies as classified by the World Bank, and other countries or markets
with similar emerging characteristics. Given the Fund’s broad investment universe, the portfolio manager
expects to be able to deploy a large part of the Fund’s assets under normal circumstances. However, the Fund will seek to remain true to its investment disciple at all times and in all market conditions, and may at time hold cash in lieu of
equities if the portfolio managers cannot find sufficient investment opportunities that meet all of its key
investment criteria. In addition, the portfolio manager may invest in depositary receipts, which are receipts
that represent interests in non-U.S. securities that may be sponsored or unsponsored.
The portfolio manager believes that the Fund’s investment goals are best achieved by taking a long-term approach. The portfolio manager considers himself as owner of businesses and believes the
intrinsic value of a business is not decided by what happens in a given quarter, but rather by what will happen
over a multi-year period. However, the portfolio manager is also valuation-driven. As such, what ultimately
dictates the Fund’s holding period of any security is how much time it takes for the discount to fair value to unwind.
Key Investment Criteria. The portfolio manager expects to consider the
following investment criteria, among others, under normal circumstances.
1. Business Quality. The
portfolio manager seeks to invest in businesses with high barriers to market entry, low threat of substitutes,
sustainable competitive advantages, and power over customers as well as suppliers. The portfolio manager believes that such businesses can expand revenue over time, generate industry leading margins, realize high levels of free cash flow, and
earn attractive returns on capital employed.
2. Financial Strength.
The portfolio manager considers the overall financial strength of businesses. The portfolio manager seeks to
avoid companies with excessive leverage on their balance sheet relative to the free cash flow profile of the
business. The portfolio manager believes that a strong balance sheet can help a company withstand temporary
disruptions or adverse economic circumstances, and put it in a position to gain strength though challenging
times.
3. Strong Management. The portfolio manager seeks to invest in companies with shareholder-aligned management teams that have histories of both operational excellence and capital allocation
that builds shareholder value.
4. Low Absolute
Valuation. The portfolio manager only makes investments when he believes the investment offers a high margin
of safety, i.e., when the issuer’s shares trade at a significant discount to the portfolio manager’s
estimate of their intrinsic value.
Given the portfolio manager’s strict
investment criteria, a broad potential investment universe, a limited number of holdings in the portfolio, and a
benchmark-agnostic approach are all important aspects of the Fund’s strategy. While there are thousands of publicly listed companies across international markets, the portfolio manager believes that only a limited number of them combine
strong business fundamentals, financial strength, and shareholder-friendly management teams while trading at a
significant discount to intrinsic value, which leads the portfolio manager to run a concentrated portfolio. The
portfolio manager’s benchmark-agnostic approach focuses on whether an opportunity meets all of the
investment criteria, rather than where the company is domiciled or which sector or industry it operates in.
The portfolio manager is cognizant of macro-economic factors, but center his analyses around, and selects stocks based on the fundamentals of the underlying businesses. The portfolio manager
performs security selection on a bottom-up basis and conducts extensive research on individual investment
candidates, focusing on business fundamentals. The portfolio manager eschews businesses that do not lend
themselves to appraisal. The portfolio manager uses research findings to estimate the intrinsic value of businesses.
The Fund’s portfolio construction is the product of this research and valuation process. The portfolio manager selects companies that meet his qualitative investment criteria and in his view
offer a significant margin of safety. The portfolio manager ranks all portfolio securities according to the
relative discount to his estimate of intrinsic value and usually allocates the largest portfolio weightings