Areas of Interest

As at 17 November 2023

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Refer to each funds’ monthly reports for weights across largest 5 AOIs as at last month end.
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Big Data – Businesses that derive a competitive advantage from having unique and hard to replicate data sets. In many cases, network effects mean that these proprietary data sets get stronger over time, advancing the company’s competitive advantages to peers.

Climate – The need to decarbonise the planet is a major thematic of our time. Companies whose earnings prospects should improve with increased investment and focus on decarbonisation, as the global economy moves towards reducing carbon emissions. We’ve identified climate change leaders and decarbonisation enablers that generally fit one or more of the following sub-trends:‍

    - Clean Energy (companies benefitting from the demand for carbon-free and renewable energy including energy generation covering wind, solar and renewable fuels);

    - Clean Transport (companies benefiting from the growth of electric vehicles, battery technology and other low carbon transportation);

    - Energy Efficiency (companies offering insulation products, electrical switches, lighting, metering and other energy efficient technologies); and

    - Circular Economy (companies most likely to benefit from efforts to improve recycling, alternative packaging materials and management of waste, wastewater, agriculture technologies and other services aimed at reducing reliance on raw materials).

Connectivity – 5G is a key enabler for future technologies such as autonomous driving. The backbone of this technology includes tower companies and equipment testing companies. 

Consumer - Global equity markets had a volatile start to 2021 as US long-term interest rates, represented by the nominal yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury, rose on the back of expectations of a vaccine-led recovery.

Digital Enterprise – The cloud computing revolution is still in its early growth stages, with Public Cloud and software as a service (SaaS) technology likely to dominate information technology spend in the next few years.

Digital Payments – There is a global trend moving away from physical cash payments to digital payments. New payment technologies mean we are now seeing an accelerating take-uprate along with a growing desire among many governments to eradicate the cash economy.

E-Commerce – With improvements in the selection of goods and services available online combined with delivery speed and reliability – such as Amazon’s move to one-day shipping – online consumer sales are on the rise.

High Performance Computing – As emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud computing and self-driving vehicles become more mainstream, they will demand ever greater computing power which only a handful of players will be able to supply. 

Infrastructure – Is the key to a growing economy, we expect large spending plans and growing private participation to enable strong growth ahead for Toll road providers, airports and housing.

Innovative Health – Health is an industry facing unsustainably rising costs and inconsistent outcomes – and is therefore fertile ground for innovation across diagnostics and patient care, in areas like genetic sequencing, virtual reality and 3D printed medical devices. 

Internet Disruption – As the world’s big online platforms or aggregators attract more users and generate more content, they acquire more data, create smarter algorithms and create better services – a circular‘ network effect’ giving the big players like Google and Facebook ever more pricing power and the ability to exceed market expectations. 

Security – companies that are involved in either cyber or physical security.   

Wealth Effects – As the global population becomes wealthier and consumers and businesses more financially savvy, consumers and businesses become more connected to the financial world driving a need for more insurance, banking and securities and other financial products.  

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