The Fund aims to provide income and long-term capital growth primarily through investment in shares of companies around the world. The Fund will have a blend of investments and will be unrestricted in its choice of companies either by size or industry, or the geographical make-up of the portfolio. The Fund will focus investment on stocks deemed by the Investment Manager to be of high quality.
For Inc-2 and Inc-3 shares classes, expenses are charged to the capital account rather than to income, so capital will be reduced. This could constrain future capital and income growth. Income may be taxable.
The portfolio invests in a relatively small number of individual holdings. This may mean wider fluctuations in value than more broadly invested portfolios.
Changes in the relative values of different currencies may adversely affect the value of investments and any related income.
The use of derivatives is not intended to increase the overall level of risk. However, the use of derivatives may still lead to large changes in value and includes the potential for large financial loss. A counterparty to a derivative transaction may fail to meet its obligations which may also lead to a financial loss.
These markets carry a higher risk of financial loss than more developed markets as they may have less developed legal, political, economic or other systems.
The value of equities (e.g. shares) and equity-related investments may vary according to company profits and future prospects as well as more general market factors. In the event of a company default (e.g. insolvency), the owners of their equity rank last in terms of any financial payment from that company.
Portfolio currency hedging aims to protect investors from a decline in the value of the primary currencies of the underlying investments, and investors may not benefit from an increase in the value of those currencies against the value of the share class currency. Where the underlying investments are denominated in currencies where the hedging costs are higher, for instance in emerging market currencies, the hedged returns can be significantly lower than the local currency returns. There can be no assurance that hedging strategies will be successful and such hedging can positively or negatively impact investors by inaccuracies in the operation of the hedge.