Generally accepted financial theory claims the investor is rational, the market is efficient and the only way to generate excess return is to assume higher market risk (beta). The investment team believes that higher market risk does not always result in a proportionally higher return, thus investors are not always fully compensated for assuming greater risk. This is substantiated by recent research. The investment team is also of the opinion that market information is generally not interpreted consistently by market actors. A structured, rule-based investment process is objective in evaluating market risk and market information. Accordingly, we believe this type of investment process provides the best chance of utilising these two anomalies in order to generate better-than-market returns.

Investment universe

The fund invests in European companies across different sectors and industries. We use an objective and disciplined investment process to identify what we regard as high quality companies that are favourably valued and have stable share prices. This gives the fund a defensive character. Consequently, it is more likely that the fund may outperform its benchmark in gently rising and falling markets than in sharply rising markets. Additionally, we follow specific sustainability criteria in our investment process. These criteria are based on international standards for human rights, labour, environmental and anti-corruption issues. This means we invest in companies that follow these standards. We do not invest in companies where more than five percent of the company's revenue comes from the production and/or sale of weapons or pornographic material, the production of alcoholic beverages or tobacco products, or from commercial gambling. We do not invest in companies that manufacture or sell controversial weapons. The fund’s performance will be affected by fluctuations in the underlying foreign exchange rates against the fund’s base currency. Derivatives may be used to achieve investment objectives and facilitate fund management. The fund may invest in other instruments than those mentioned above. Information about the fund's complete investment possibilities is available in the full prospectus.

Investment team

The fund is managed by the Global Equities team within SEB Investment Management AB with Jonas Linnell as the lead portfolio manager. The team, based in Stockholm, employs a systematic and disciplined investment process.

Research

The team uses a rule-based investment process based on evaluating the quality, profitability, valuation, sentiment, and risk profiles of individual companies which are potential investment objects. These factors form the basis for an objective ranking that identifies attractive companies. The team’s rule-based approach makes it possible to include all the companies in the investment universe in the evaluation process.

Portfolio construction

The portfolio is built from a bottom-up perspective. In constructing the portfolio, the team focuses on selecting the holdings that will result in the intended active exposure and risk profile for the portfolio. The investment team also aims to maintain diversification, efficient execution and cost-effective implementation.