Fund Description

The fund uses fundamental research to build a portfolio of emerging and less developed market companies it believes can benefit from emerging-market growth and sustain a global competitive advantage. It focuses on sustainable earnings, assessed through financial analysis of statements and return-on-equity drivers and strategic analysis of competitive advantages and financial strength. ESG factors are evaluated via incident-based third-party data and internal research using a 1-5 sustainability score that adjusts target prices. Risk analysis incorporates company-specific and macroeconomic factors to set risk-adjusted targets. It invests at least 80% of net assets plus borrowings in emerging-market equities, generally limits a single issuer to 15% at purchase, invests across market caps (typically $400 million+), and may use equity-linked participation certificates.