Investment Philosophy & Process

The Acuity Social Values strategies seek to achieve long-term capital growth by investing in a diversified portfolio of companies. Acuity’s investment committee is responsible for all asset allocation and security selection decisions. The Investment Committee is composed of Portfolio Managers who meet formally each month, or more frequently if warranted by market conditions.

Asset allocation decisions are developed through a top-down focus by the Committee and reflect consensus opinion on external forecasts. The Committee takes a macroeconomic perspective in making the allocation decisions considering factors such as inflation, interest rates, gross domestic product growth rates and monetary and fiscal policies.

Acuity buys reasonably priced growth securities, seeking long-term capital appreciation.

The Acuity investment management team:

• Seeks companies that they believe will demonstrate earnings growth that the market has not priced properly
• Strives to build a portfolio with growth characteristics meaningfully higher than the market itself
• Pays close attention to forward-looking valuation metrics to ensure they don’t overpay
• Seeks companies with strong balance sheets and low leverage

Once financially attractive opportunities have been identified, analysis into the extent to which these companies are innovative and progressive in their treatment of key environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is conducted. By combining financial analysis with ESG analysis, Acuity seeks to identify companies that are leaders in their industry or are improving on ESG factors. It is thought that companies that successfully manage ESG issues can increase company value by anticipating regulatory action, accessing new markets, contributing to sustainable development within society and managing risks to profitability.

In addition to ESG screening, companies that derive a significant portion of their revenues from the sale of weapons, nuclear power, tobacco, alcohol and gambling are excluded from the Social Values strategy.