Our International Equity investment strategy seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in securities of companies domiciled outside of the United States. This strategy expects to invest in companies domiciled predominately in developed economies, although it may also invest in companies in less-developed economies and/or emerging markets. Its investment approach is long-biased and focused on equity holdings of public companies with market capitalizations ranging from small cap to mega cap. The International Equity strategy utilizes financial instruments both for investment purposes and/or for risk management purposes.
The development of investment opportunities into this strategy emanates from the fundamental research process led by our experienced internal research staff. The International Equity strategy strives to achieve its objective through fundamental analysis and seeks high quality companies based on various criteria, such as high profitability levels, strong balance sheets, competitive advantages, strong market share positions, clearly defined business plans, ability to generate excess cash flows, management teams with meaningful ownership stakes, attractive reinvestment opportunities and attractive relative valuation. This philosophy provides the basis for our International Equity investments consistent with our firm-wide approach of seeking to build long-term value for our clients.