Allianz Global Investors

Fund: Allianz Global Sustainability

Speaker: Giles Money, CIO Global Sustainability / SRI Equity & Alex Bibani, Senior Portfolio Manager

Royal London Asset Management

Fund: RL Global Equity Income.

Speaker: Niko De Walden, Fund Manager

Capital Group

Fund: Capital Group New Perspective Fund

Speaker: Richard Carlyle, Equity Investment Director & Portfolio Strategy Manager

Session: In a world of change, take a new perspective

While change is constant and the world continually adapts, we are currently facing several era-defining shifts happening at the same time: from geopolitics and economic volatility, to transformative developments across artificial intelligence, healthcare and energy. From an investment perspective, it is key to find strategies that can evolve in the same way, with flexibility to capitalise on new opportunities.

Downing Fund Managers

Fund: UK Small & Mid Cap Income

Speaker: Josh McCathie, Fund Manager

Session: UK Income: The Year of Smaller Cap Resurgence

It has been well-documented that UK equities have fallen out of favour with investors and not least the smaller end of the market cap spectrum. But has this been largely attributed to a shift in sentiment or differing fundamentals? This session will seek to gauge if the UK equity malaise is truly warranted and how UK small and mid-caps may offer a generational buying opportunity from a total return perspective.

EdenTree

Fund: EdenTree Responsible & Sustainable European Equity Fund

Speaker: Chris Hiorns, Head of Multi-Asset and European Equities

Carmignac

Fund: FP Carmignac European Leaders

Speaker: Mark Denham, Head of Equities and Fund Manager

Session: European equities, a fertile ground for investors in search of opportunities

With the root cause of the pull back in European equities over the past few years being higher inflation and higher rates, how do we see the opportunity set coming back for quality stocks against a backdrop in central bank activity? Mark Denham will share his views, themes that act as catalysts and where he finds hidden opportunities through his concentrated long-term approach investing in sustainable quality companies.

SKAGEN

Fund: SKAGEN Focus

Speaker: Jonas Edholm, Lead Portfolio Manager

Session: The Magnificent Gap.

Distorted valuations at both ends of the equity market capitalisation spectrum create risks for herd-following investors but huge opportunities for those who understand that bigger isn’t better. There is currently a unique dislocation in global equity markets, which might prove to be a generational opportunity to create alpha. In this session, we will explain this investment opportunity and why our contrarian global small and mid-cap fund, SKAGEN Focus, is uniquely positioned to capture value from the reversal of this anomaly. Importantly, we also believe that this dislocation has created severe concentration risks for global passive equity investors over the next 2-3 years which have yet to unravel.

Jupiter Asset Management

Fund: Jupiter Global Emerging Markets Focus ex China Fund

Speaker: Nick Payne, Investment Manager, Global Emerging Market Equities

Session: What’s the secret to emerging market investing?

Emerging markets are so much more than just China, offering significant long term growth potential, stable democracies, and world class businesses. In this session, Nick Payne (Investment Manager, Global Emerging Market Equities) will look at some of the overlooked opportunities in emerging markets, and how an active investment approach may be best placed to identify truly long term ‘supercompounders’.

Impax Asset Management

Fund: US Environmental Leaders

Speaker: David Winborne, Senior Portfolio Manager

Session: US Environmental Leaders - Positioning for the transition

Building on Impax’s 25-year legacy of investing in sustainable markets, the US Environmental Leaders fund invests in companies well positioned to benefit from the transition to a more sustainable economy. Through a rigorous bottom-up, high conviction approach, the fund allocates to companies that are best positioned to capitalise on the many secular growth opportunities arising from environmental and resource challenges. We will discuss the US regulatory environment and policy tailwinds such as the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and how the fund identifies its investible universe to find opportunities supporting the transition.

Zennor Asset Management (Spring Capital)

Fund: Zennor Japan Equity Income Fund

Speaker: David Mitchinson, Portfolio Manager

Session: Japan: A Compelling Opportunity for Equity Income Investors

After the boom years of the ‘80s, the Japanese market went through a prolonged period of under-performance. Because of the Japanese Keiretsu system, corporate management teams were not always motivated to make decisions to maximize shareholder value. As a result, many investors went underweight; today, Japan remains under-owned and undervalued. This dynamic, combined with a lack of deep fundamental research coverage on more than 40% of the market, offers savvy investors plenty of potential. The key to unlocking this potential is the ongoing corporate governance revolution – beginning with the Stewardship Code in 2012 – which continues to gain momentum. Through market participants like the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and corporate activists, there’s increasing pressure on companies regarding their inefficient structure and poor valuations. Management is listening, companies are responding, and the investment landscape is changing.

GAM Investments

Fund: GAM STAR CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN EQUITY

Speaker: Niall Gallagher, Investment Director

Session: Style flexible investing: will it continue to deliver as we enter the new normal?

Moderating inflation and the prospect of lower interest rates may well herald a return to a pre QE environment for equities. Are we limited to the choice between Growth or Value or does an unconstrained mindset and truly flexible approach offer us a better path to consistently capitalise on the wide breadth of opportunities available? Niall Gallagher will present his views on why being style flexible is key in his view to generating long-term consistent client alpha.

Premier Miton Investors

Fund: Premier Miton UK Value Opportunities

Speaker: Matthew Tillett, Fund Manager, Premier Miton Opportunities Fund, Premier Miton UK Focus Fund, Premier Miton UK Value Opportunities Fund 

Session: Cycling to Success

Fund manager Matthew Tillett explains how the Premier Miton UK Value Opportunities strategy is generating consistent alpha by identifying and exploiting cycles of price and fundamental value. Matthew will argue that this approach is thriving in the current post Covid environment and he will illustrate this point with a number of stock and sector examples. He believes the opportunity set for this style of investing today is as rich as it has ever been.

Polar Capital

Fund: Japan Value Fund

Speaker: Chris Smith, Co-Manager

Session: Japan: The case for value

With Japanese stocks recently breaking three-decade highs, Chris Smith, Co-manager of the Polar Capital Japan Value Fund, will give his outlook on Japan, discuss the sustainability of the current market rally, and explain why the team are focussed on small-cap, cash rich companies.

RBC BlueBay Asset Management

Funds:

RBC Funds (Lux) - U.S. Equity Focus Fund

RBC Funds (Lux) - Emerging Markets Equity Fund

Speakers: 

Habib Subjally, Head of Global Equities, RBC Global Equity (RBC Funds (Lux) - U.S Equity Focus Fund)

Dijana Jelic, Product Specialist, RBC Emerging Markets Equity (RBC Funds (Lux) - Emerging Markets Equity Fund)

Artemis Fund Managers

Fund: Artemis SmartGARP Global Emerging Markets Equity Fund

Speakers: Aalok Sathe, Analyst & Harry Eastwood, Product Specialist

Session: Emerging Markets - A smartGARP view

In aggregate, Emerging Market stocks have lagged their developed market peers for a number of years. This preference has created opportunities for a disciplined investment approach, given the indiscriminate selling. For those investors willing to look beneath the surface, companies with attractive growth and income generation are trading on low valuations. To leverage these opportunities, we believe a disciplined, rational approach that casts its net wide, is the best way to deliver attractive absolute and relative returns to investors.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments

Funds: 

CT UK Equity Income Fund

CT US Equity Income Fund

Speakers: 

Jeremy Smith, Co-Head of UK Equities

Benedikt Blomberg, CFA - Head of US Equities EMEA and Portfolio Manager

Session (UK): UK equities: time for a rethink?

Why we believe the gloom overhanging the UK economy is overdone, whilst UK stocks are continuing to trade at a discount to global equities, which is likely to attract further merger and acquisition activity. And why as patient investors, we remain true to our enduring style of high-conviction value investing, which we believe will continue to serve us well over time.

Session (US): CT US Equity Income: Going Beyond the Magnificent 7

Since the Magnificent 7 have gathered so much attention in recent times, we believe that there is an overlooked opportunity to go further afield within US large caps and seek out dividend growers. With robust balance sheets, sound management and reliable returns to shareholders we think that a portfolio of sustainable dividend growers offers differentiation to many typical US equity funds and is more exposed to a widening breadth of market returns instead of the very narrow concentration in a handful of stocks that we’ve recently seen.