Cusana

The Cusana investment management team focuses on investments in emerging markets, as investment manager for Sector Global Emerging Markets Fund and Sector Emerging Markets Equities. Investments are long-term and held in highly researched portfolios which are constructed without reference to the benchmark but with a strong focus on ESG credentials at each stage of the investment process.

Cusana Capital LLP is incorporated in England and the registered office is at 2nd Floor, Heathmans House, 19 Heathmans Road, London, United Kingdom SW6 4TJ.

The Cusana team is led by Robert Marshall-Lee who has 20 years of experience of investing in Emerging Markets having founded the Emerging Markets franchise at BNY Mellon/Newton in 2011.

The Cusana team is made up of:

Robert Marshall-Lee, Founding Partner, Chief Investment Officer
Ben Smith, Lead Analyst
Trygve Toraasen, Partner
Jos Trusted, Founding Partner, Chief Executive Officer

Sustainability Approach

UNIFIED THINKING

As long-term investors, the sustainability of each company is integral to our assessment of its intrinsic value. We therefore place great emphasis on ESG considerations as part of a holistic analysis in combination with financial metrics. Indeed, a thorough analysis of one cannot exist without a solid understanding of the other. Cusana exercises judgment and experience to ensure that the portfolio’s investee companies are managed responsibly and in the interests of all shareholders. We seek to invest in businesses that will be good stewards of our clients' capital and will positively contribute to the societies in which they exist.

PRINCIPLES-BASED

We believe that a principles-based approach enables Cusana to better assess highly complex issues for which available data may be inadequate or even misleading. Principles aid our judgment, so that we do not become lost in well-meaning but misguided quantification. Our principles guide us to invest in a manner that prioritises ESG in substance, rather than being lost in a process of metric computation, false precision and box-ticking.

INTEGRATION

Whilst implicitly at the heart of most of what we do at Cusana, ESG is also explicitly integrated into the Cusana investment process. First, Cusana excludes businesses with revenue from the following activities: adult entertainment; armaments; gambling; tobacco; thermal coal. More significantly, all existing and prospective holdings in the Cusana portfolio are assessed against a detailed investment checklist, many sections of which relate to ESG factors. From this checklist, the investment team highlight the most material considerations. Corporate governance is always of great importance to the investment thesis.

ENGAGEMENT

The investment industry is key to driving behavioural change, as it can direct the flow of capital to good actors and conversely divert it away from the bad actors. We will therefore actively engage with our investee companies where we perceive their activities fail to consider fully the impact of sustainability as it is a risk to shareholder value. We often invest in small and mid-cap companies which are not yet best-in-class, but which we can help to guide on that journey. Engagement is therefore a fundamental part of the Cusana process.

Sustainability-related disclosures

As of 18 April 2024

Introduction

In March 2021, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (“SFDR”) came into effect. SFDR seeks to establish a pan-European framework to facilitate sustainable investment, by providing for a harmonised approach in respect of sustainability-related disclosures to investors within the European Union's financial services sector.

The scope of SFDR is extremely broad, covering a wide range of financial products and financial market participants. It seeks to achieve more transparency regarding how financial market participants integrate Sustainability Risks into their investment decisions and the consideration of adverse sustainability impacts into the investment process.

The objectives of SFDR are to

(i) strengthen protection for investors of financial products,

(ii) improve the disclosures made available to investors from financial market participants and

(iii) improve the disclosures made available to investors regarding the financial products, to amongst other things, enable investors make informed investment decisions.

Under Article 3 and 4 of the SFDR, information must be published on the integration of sustainability risks into investment decisions and/or investment advice, as well as on the consideration of the principal adverse impacts of investment decisions and/or investment advice on sustainability factors.

Integration of Sustainability Risks & ESG Factors (SFDR Article 3)

The integration of Sustainability Risks is integral to the Investment Manager’s investment analysis and Sustainability Risks are assessed, in conjunction with and as part of, the Investment Manager's financial, thematic and macro analysis and valuation work. This ensures consideration of all material sustainability matters in advance of investment decisions.

The Investment Manager adheres to the Norges Bank observation and exclusion of companies list (the “Exclusion List”), ensuring that the Fund does not invest in companies in contravention of the Exclusion List.

Consideration of Principal Adverse Sustainability Impacts on Sustainability Factors (SFDR Article 4)

The Investment Manager considers the broad range of principal adverse impacts ("PAI"). When considering PAI, the Investment Manager takes into consideration differing stages of development, social norms and institutional development in different countries when assessing the acceptability of behaviour. The Investment Manager also exercises judgment in weighing the full impact of the company on the environment and society.

The Investment Manager uses multiple sources of ESG information and believes it is the investors who are best placed to filter this information and interpret its impact on a company’s financial performance, sustainability footprint and valuation. The Investment Manager believes it is very difficult to assign a monetary value or meaningful number to ESG issues and to integrate them into financial models. ESG-related disclosure by companies may be limited, unverified and non-standardized, especially within emerging markets where jurisdictional frameworks tend to be less developed. The Investment Manager has developed its own ESG scorecards to ensure that PAI indicators are sufficiently considered. Scorecards are regularly updated and reviewed.

Remuneration Policy (SFDR Article 5)

The purpose of the Company’s remuneration policy is to establish arrangements for compensation that may help the Company to attract highly skilled and qualified employees, develop and retain key persons and encourage perpetuity and continuous progress to reach the Company’s goals, while at the same time ensuring the integrity of the Company’s risk management.

The remuneration policy determines the following:

(i) To which of the Company’s employees and representatives this remuneration policy shall be applicable, in accordance with the abovementioned regulations concerning the calculation and payment of remuneration (Identified Employees). Such employees are divided into (a) executive management, (b) employees with control functions, (c) representatives and (d) employees whose responsibilities are of significant importance to the Company's risk exposure. Regarding the last category in (d) above, employees with similar remuneration as executive managers and other employees with tasks of considerable importance to the Company's risk exposure will be considered separately;

(ii) Whether the Company has more than 50 employees and/or total of assets under management that exceeds certain thresholds (and thus required to establish a remuneration committee); and

(iii) Which frameworks and guidelines that will apply to the calculation and payment of both the fixed and variable remuneration to those defined as “Identified Employees”.

The remuneration from the Company to Identified Employees may consist of a fixed and a variable element. The fixed element shall be determined on an individual basis and be sufficiently high (so that the Identified Employees of the Company are not dependent on any relevant variable remuneration, enabling the Company to not disburse the variable part of the remuneration).

The Company does not have guaranteed bonuses or sign-on fees.

For Cusana Capital, the Identified Employees are the CIO, the CEO, and the Portfolio Managers.

Fund Classification
For the purposes of SFDR, all Funds managed by Cusana Capital qualify as Article 8 financial products.

For product-specific disclosures, please refer to the sub-pages of Sector Emerging Markets Equities Fund and Sector Global Emerging Markets Fund.

For more information on Cusana, please visit their website www.cusanacapital.com