AGF Global Sustainable Equity Fund
Important information: Effective March 21, 2024, the AGF Global Sustainable Equity Fund is closed to new investors. New account requests and exchanges into the Fund are no longer accepted. The AGF Global Sustainable Equity Fund will liquidate on or around April 30, 2024. Please see Prospectus Supplement dated March 21, 2024 in the “Resources” section below.
Approach
Blend of thematic and bottom up approach.
Cap
All-Cap
Benchmark
MSCI World Net Index
Inception Date
November 3, 2017
Key Reasons to Invest
1
Exposure to thematic opportunities that are arising from the ongoing shift to a sustainable economy.
2
Focused on companies that meet the sustainability issues facing the world using a disciplined thematic investment framework.
3
For investors interested in responsible investing and global diversification.
Overview
Strategy
A disciplined, fundamental bottom-up approach to responsible and sustainable investing from an experienced sustainable investment team. The Fund is focused on companies categorized within four major themes: energy transition, circular economy & pollution abatement, water services & climate adaption and food & health.
Philosophy
We believe that a shift to a more sustainable economy is underway and is gaining velocity. Drivers include policy and regulation, changing corporate objectives, societal pressure, and technological advances. Our view is that investing in the thematic opportunities related to this shift forms a compelling and enduring strategy to contribute to a more sustainable economy and deliver the opportunity for superior returns.
Process
Our investment process combines thematic analysis with fundamental stock selection. We map 1,000 companies to four proprietary sustainable themes (energy transition, circular economy & pollution abatement, water services & climate adaptation and food & health). We then identify accelerating sub-themes by examining societal trends, demand, cyclicality, growth, margin potential, regulatory drivers, pricing power, competition, and barriers to entry. We further examine sub-themes across GICS sectors to identify which segments of the Value Chain (materials, suppliers, producers) contain the most attractive investment opportunities. Our fundamental analysis seeks to identify companies with revenues accelerating in line with our sub-themes. Our Stage Appropriate Analysis allows us to consider stocks across the maturity spectrum and assesses fundamentals such as revenue and earnings growth, margins, management, free cash flow, valuation, and sustainability of competitive position. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis examines risks and opportunities related to climate, diversity, and human capital, and our active ownership stance governs our proxy voting and corporate engagements. Our objective is to outperform broad global equity markets by constructing a differentiated portfolio of 40 to 60 holdings from all capitalization ranges, each providing solutions to key sustainability challenges.
Investment Process
- Map 1,000 companies providing sustainable solutions to four borad themes and 14 sub-themes.
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1. Thematic Analysis
- Identify attractive sub-themes based on demand, regulatory drivers, and new products and technologies.
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2. Fundamental Analysis
- Assess companies with ESG attributes, accelerating revenues, and clear catalysts in line with our sustainable themes.
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3. Portfolio Construction
40-60 names.
Investment Team
Resources
Before investing you should carefully consider each Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information is in the Fund's prospectus. Click here for prospectus or call 1-833-AGF-FUND (833-243-3863).
RISKS: Investing involves risk including loss of principal. Equity securities are volatile and can decline significantly in response to broad market and economic conditions. Investments in global equities may be significantly affected by political or economic conditions and regulatory requirements in a particular country. International markets can involve risks of currency fluctuation, political and economic instability, different accounting standards and foreign taxation. Emerging or frontier markets involve exposure to economic structures that are generally less diverse and mature. The less developed the market, the riskier the security. Such securities may be less liquid and more volatile. Sustainable Investing Risk, there are significant differences in interpretations of what it means for a company to have positive exposure to sustainable investment themes. The Fund may forgo opportunities to gain exposure to certain attractive companies in certain industries and sectors, such as fossil fuel producers, and may have a reduced weighting in other sectors, due to their lack of positive exposure to sustainable investment themes. Because of these themes, the Fund may underperform the market as a whole if such investments underperform the market. In addition, sustainable investing considerations may be linked to long-term rather than short-term returns.
Additional risks of the Fund include but are not limited to: Portfolio Management Risk, Foreign Currency Risk, Equity-Linked Investment Risk, Depository Receipts Risk, Exchange-Traded Funds and Other Investment Companies Risk, Hedging Risk, Liquidity Risk, Repurchase and Reverse Repurchase Agreements Risk, Credit Risk, U.S. Gov Securities Risk, Large Shareholder Risk, Small Fund Risk.
The MSCI World Net Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed markets. The benchmark to February 28, 2014 was the MSCI World Index ex-Tobacco. One cannot invest directly in an index.
Distributor: Foreside Fund Services, LLC
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ESG - ESG investing is defined as utilizing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria as a set of standards for a company's operations that socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments.