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 Managers do 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 Managers believe are high quality and financially strong, and that the Portfolio Managers believe have management
teams that run the business well operationally and allocate capital in a way that builds share value over time.
The Portfolio Managers seek to invest in these companies when their stock prices are significantly less than the
Portfolio Managers’ estimate of their intrinsic values per share. The Portfolio Managers define 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
Managers believe reasonable business practices exist. In investing the Fund’s assets, the Portfolio
Managers focus 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 Managers do 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 Managers expect 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 key investment criteria. In addition, the Portfolio Managers may invest in
depositary receipts, which are receipts that represent interests in non-U.S. securities that may be sponsored or
unsponsored.
The Portfolio Managers believe
that the Fund’s investment goals are best achieved by taking a long-term approach. The Portfolio Managers
consider the Fund 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 Managers are 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 Managers expect to consider the following investment criteria, among others, under normal
circumstances.
1.
Business Quality. The Portfolio Managers seek 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 Managers believe 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 Managers consider the overall financial strength of businesses. The Portfolio Managers
seek to avoid companies with excessive leverage on their balance sheet relative to the free cash flow profile of
the business. The Portfolio Managers believe 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 Managers seek 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 Managers only make investments when they believe the investment offers a high margin of safety, i.e., when the issuer’s shares trade at a significant discount to the Portfolio Managers’ estimate of
their intrinsic value.
Given the Portfolio Managers’ 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 Managers believe 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 Managers to run a concentrated portfolio. The Portfolio
Managers’ 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 Managers are cognizant of macro-economic factors, but center their analyses around, and selects stocks based on
the fundamentals of the underlying businesses. The Portfolio Managers perform security selection on a bottom-up
basis and conducts extensive research on individual investment candidates, focusing on business fundamentals. The
Portfolio Managers eschew businesses that do not lend themselves to appraisal. The Portfolio Managers use
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 Managers select companies that meet the
qualitative investment criteria and in their view offer a significant margin of safety. The Portfolio Managers rank all portfolio securities according to the relative discount to the estimate of intrinsic value and usually allocates the largest
portfolio