VT Cantab Global Equity Fund
SRI Style:
Environmental Style
SDR Labelling:
-
Product:
OEIC
Fund Region:
Global
Fund Asset Type:
Equity
Launch Date:
17/12/2019
Last Amended:
Jun 2023
Dialshifter (
):
Fund Size:
£49.72m
(as at: 31/12/2024)
Total Screened Themed SRI Assets:
£41.00m
(as at: 28/04/2023)
Total Assets Under Management:
£41.00m
(as at: 28/04/2023)
ISIN:
GB00BK5XL008, GB00BK5XKZ82, GB00BK96BP05, GB00BK96GV10
Contact Us:
Objectives:
The investment objective of the Fund is to provide income and capital growth over the long term (5 years +) by gaining exposure to a diversified portfolio of global equities. A key element in portfolio construction is an assessment of investee companies' approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues (e.g. whether they pay due attention and consideration to ESG concerns and demonstrate this through ESG policies and practice). Investments will only be made in companies which the Investment Manager considers make a positive contribution to environmental, social and/ or governance matters and so help in the development of a sustainable global economy. Companies involved in industries such as the production of fossil fuels, alcohol and tobacco, gambling or controversial weapons are automatically excluded from the investment universe.
Sustainable, Responsible
&/or ESG Overview:
Awaiting update from fund manager (August 2024)
The fund seeks to generate superior risk-adjusted equity returns with a robust and disciplined investment process that focuses on investing in quality companies at attractive valuations and holding them for the long term, whilst integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors into the construction of the portfolio.
Primary fund last amended:
Jun 2023
Information directly from fund manager.
Fund Filters
Environmental - General
Funds that limit or 'reduce' their exposure to carbon intensive industries (ie sectors which are major contributors to climate change. Funds vary - some funds may be 'underweight' in this area which means they may have some investment in highly carbon intensive areas. Funds of this kind may choose companies they consider to be 'best in sector' and encourage ever higher standards. Strategies vary. See fund information for further details.
Funds that aim to invest in companies with strong or market leading environmental policies and practices. Strategies vary - in particular the balance between 'financial' aspects and environmental benefits. Some may invest substantially in solutions or 'positive impact' companies - others may invest in more conventional companies providing certain environmental criteria are met. See fund information for further detail.
Climate Change & Energy
Funds that avoid investing in major coal, oil and/or gas (extraction) companies. Funds vary: some may exclude all companies that extract oil. Others may have exposure to oil extraction via more diversified energy companies. See fund literature to confirm details.
Funds that avoid companies involved in fracking and tar sands - which are widely regarded as controversial methods of oil and gas extraction. Strategies vary. See fund information for further information.
Funds that avoid companies that are involved in extracting oil from the Arctic regions. See fund literature for further details.
Funds that avoid investing in companies with coal, oil and gas reserves. See fund information for further details.
The fund manager excludes companies with direct involvement in fossil fuel exploration (eg coal, oil and gas companies)
The fund manager excludes companies with indirect involvement in fossil fuel exploration. For example they would be expected to exclude banks and insurance companies that are effectively enabling new coal, oil and or gas reserves to be discovered and in due course extracted through the provision of necessary finance or services.
Social / Employment
All mining companies excluded
Ethical Values Led Exclusions
Companies are excluded if they are involved in any aspect of the production chain for tobacco products, including cigarettes, vaping, e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars.
Find funds that avoid companies that manufacture products intended specifically for military use. Fund strategies vary - particularly with regard to non-strategic military products. See fund literature for fund specific details.
Find funds with a written civilian firearms exclusion policy - meaning that they will not invest in companies that make (or perhaps also sell) handguns made for non-military users.
Find funds that avoid investment in companies involved in the production of alcohol. Strategies vary; some funds allow a small proportion of profits to come from this area. See fund literature for further information.
Find funds that avoid companies with significant involvement in the gambling industry. Some funds may allow a small proportion of profits to come from this area. See fund policy for further details.
Find funds that avoid companies that derive significant income from pornography and related areas. Strategies vary. See fund details for further information.
Governance & Management
Find funds that aim to avoid investing in companies with poor governance practices.(e.g. board structure, management practices etc.) Views may however vary on what counts as 'poor' practices - and funds may not immediately divest as they may prefer to work to encourage higher standards. See fund literature for further information.
Fund managers encourage the companies they invest in to have more diverse board structures (e.g. more women on boards)
Find fund managers that encourage the banks and insurance companies they invest in to publish climate change related financial information - as set out by the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (with the aim of helping investors measure and respond to climate risk).
A core element of these funds will aim to encourage higher ESG standards through responsible ownership / stewardship / engagement /voting activity
Asset Size
Find funds that invests more than half of their money into what are commonly regarded as 'large companies'. This will typically mean that the market capitalisation (or value) of the companies they hold is in excess of £5 to £10 billion.
Find funds that have SRI strategies and focus their investment stock selection on larger companies. (e.g. over circa £5-£10bn)
How The Fund Works
Find funds where their main 'ethical approach' is to avoid companies by using negative screening criteria. Read fund literature for further information.
Find funds with few exclusions - typically for example exclude tobacco or companies that breach commonly adopted standards or norms such as the UN Global Compact.
Find funds that invest more heavily in those that have higher ESG ratings/standards or scores and less heavily in companies with lower ESG ratings. Where this is central to a fund's strategy you should expect it to invest in most sectors. Strategies vary.
Aims to avoid companies that do significant harm. This originates from the EU’s sustainable finance ‘DNSH’ (do no significant harm) work, which is not necessarily used by UK investors.
Find funds that consider both the 'positive' and 'negative' aspects of company behaviour and make balanced, considered decisions as part of their investment approach. May apply to a range of different issues and policy areas.
Find funds that have published explanations of their ethical, social and/or environmental policies online (i.e. fund decision making strategies/ buy/sell &/or asset management strategies).
Unscreened Assets & Cash
All assets held in the fund - except cash - meet the sustainability criteria published in fund documentation.
Intended Clients & Product Options
Finds funds designed to meet the needs of individual investors with an interest in sustainability issues.
Find funds that are available via a tax efficient ISA product wrapper.
Only applicable for DFM’s & portfolio providers. Finds those that offer an SRI / ESG portfolio option
Only applicable for DFM’s & portfolio providers. Find service providers who offer bespoke ('personalised') SRI / ESG portfolio options
Fund Management Company Information
About The Business
Find fund management companies that are smaller or specialise in particular areas - notably, ideally ESG related. Strategies vary.
Finds fund management companies that have a published company wide stewardship, engagement and / or responsible ownership policy or strategy that covers all investments. Stewardship typically involves encouraging higher ESG standards through voting and dialogue.
Find fund managers that vote all* the shares they own at Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General Meetings. A commitment to voting shares is a key indicator of 'responsible share ownership' demonstrating their support for or disagreement with management policy. (*situations can legitimately, occasionally occur where voting proves impossible, but in principle all shares should be voted.)
Find funds run by fund managers that apply Responsible ownership or 'Stewardship' policies to all or most of their investment assets. This means active involvement (e.g. voting, dialogue) with the companies they invest in across funds (not normally limited to ethical or SRI options.) Read fund literature for further information.
Find fund management companies that consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues when deciding whether or not to invest in a company for all / almost all of their funds and other assets. This is increasingly seen as part of sound risk management.
Resources
Find fund management companies that employ people to steer and support fund managers in voting shares at company AGM's and EGMs in ways that are consistent with encouraging higher ESG/sustainability standards.
Find fund management companies that makes use of expert external research companies. This can help deliver specialist expertise and means resources are pooled with other investors.
Company Wide Exclusions
Find funds / fund managers that are reviewing, or have reviewed, their exposure to carbon intensive industries including (but not only) mining, oil and gas companies. (Typically with reference to climate change.)
Transparency
Find companies that publish information about their sustainable and responsible investment strategies on their company website.
Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Policy:
The fund will not invest in companies engaged in the production of fossil fuels, alcohol, tobacco, gambling and armaments. In addition, quantitative and qualitative analysis is used to assess whether companies pay due attention and consideration to ESG concerns and demonstrate this through ESG policies and practice.
It is important to recognise that, while the media may focus on one specific aspect of these ESG building blocks at any point in time, as investors we need to maintain a balanced approach to all the stakeholder issues a company might face.
From an investment perspective, while the above considerations are embedded into our investment process, our overriding aim is to generate superior investment returns for our clients. In this context we see the investment opportunity set as a spectrum ranging from Responsible companies that are seeking to protect capital by avoiding poor ESG practices, to Sustainable companies adopting progressive practices that may enhance value, through to Impact companies addressing ESG challenges that may or may not generate financial returns.
On a risk-adjusted basis, therefore, we believe Impact investing alone may inhibit the ability to satisfy our financial goals. As such, we expect the fund’s portfolio will be balanced across these three opportunity sets.
Process:
For quantitative ESG analysis, we use Refinitiv as our third-party data provider. Refinitiv is a leading, global data provider, and offers one of the most comprehensive ESG databases in the industry, with over 150 content research analysts trained to collect ESG data covering over 7,000 public companies globally.
Sourcing from annual reports, company websites, NGO websites, stock exchange filings, CSR reports and news sources, a subset of the most comparable and relevant data fields is used to power the overall company assessment and scoring process.
A company’s ESG performance is measured across ten main themes, grouped under Environmental (resource use, emissions, innovation), Social (workforce, human rights, community, product responsibility) and Governance (management, shareholders, CSR strategy). There is significant overlap between these themes and the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, which cover Human Rights, Labour, the Environment, and Anti-Corruption.
This analysis is performed separately from our general stock research and a stock will not be bought if it does not satisfy the criteria listed above.
Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies:
he fund is managed by a team led by Mark Wynne-Jones, Leah Bramwell and David Saunderson.
Mark (Director) studied at the London School of Economics and London Business School, is a member of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association and is a CFA Charterholder.
Leah (Director) read Economics at Newnham College, Cambridge and Economic History at Darwin College, Cambridge. Leah is a Chartered Wealth Manager and a CFA Charterholder.
David (Chief Executive) read Engineering at Downing College and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse.
Within their team, analysts work on both the general and ESG research of prospective holdings, as well as tracking existing ones.
Disclaimer
Disclaimer
As with all equity-based and bond-based investments, the value and the income therefrom can fall as well as rise and you may not get back all the money that you invested. The value of overseas securities will be influenced by the exchange rate used to convert these to sterling. Investments in stocks and shares should therefore be viewed as a medium to long-term investment.
Past performance is not a guide to the future.
Fund Name | SRI Style | SDR Labelling | Product | Region | Asset Type | Launch Date | Last Amended |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
VT Cantab Global Equity Fund |
Environmental Style | - | OEIC | Global | Equity | 17/12/2019 | Jun 2023 | |
ObjectivesThe investment objective of the Fund is to provide income and capital growth over the long term (5 years +) by gaining exposure to a diversified portfolio of global equities. A key element in portfolio construction is an assessment of investee companies' approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues (e.g. whether they pay due attention and consideration to ESG concerns and demonstrate this through ESG policies and practice). Investments will only be made in companies which the Investment Manager considers make a positive contribution to environmental, social and/ or governance matters and so help in the development of a sustainable global economy. Companies involved in industries such as the production of fossil fuels, alcohol and tobacco, gambling or controversial weapons are automatically excluded from the investment universe.
|
Fund Size: £49.72m (as at: 31/12/2024) Total Screened Themed SRI Assets: £41.00m (as at: 28/04/2023) Total Assets Under Management: £41.00m (as at: 28/04/2023) ISIN: GB00BK5XL008, GB00BK5XKZ82, GB00BK96BP05, GB00BK96GV10 Contact Us: will.briston@cantabam.com |
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Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG OverviewAwaiting update from fund manager (August 2024)
The fund seeks to generate superior risk-adjusted equity returns with a robust and disciplined investment process that focuses on investing in quality companies at attractive valuations and holding them for the long term, whilst integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors into the construction of the portfolio. |
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Primary fund last amended: Jun 2023 |
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Information received directly from Fund Manager |
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Please select what you would like to read:
Fund FiltersEnvironmental - General
Limits exposure to carbon intensive industries
Funds that limit or 'reduce' their exposure to carbon intensive industries (ie sectors which are major contributors to climate change. Funds vary - some funds may be 'underweight' in this area which means they may have some investment in highly carbon intensive areas. Funds of this kind may choose companies they consider to be 'best in sector' and encourage ever higher standards. Strategies vary. See fund information for further details.
Favours cleaner, greener companies
Funds that aim to invest in companies with strong or market leading environmental policies and practices. Strategies vary - in particular the balance between 'financial' aspects and environmental benefits. Some may invest substantially in solutions or 'positive impact' companies - others may invest in more conventional companies providing certain environmental criteria are met. See fund information for further detail. Climate Change & Energy
Coal, oil & / or gas majors excluded
Funds that avoid investing in major coal, oil and/or gas (extraction) companies. Funds vary: some may exclude all companies that extract oil. Others may have exposure to oil extraction via more diversified energy companies. See fund literature to confirm details.
Fracking and tar sands excluded
Funds that avoid companies involved in fracking and tar sands - which are widely regarded as controversial methods of oil and gas extraction. Strategies vary. See fund information for further information.
Arctic drilling exclusion
Funds that avoid companies that are involved in extracting oil from the Arctic regions. See fund literature for further details.
Fossil fuel reserves exclusion
Funds that avoid investing in companies with coal, oil and gas reserves. See fund information for further details.
Fossil fuel exploration exclusion - direct involvement
The fund manager excludes companies with direct involvement in fossil fuel exploration (eg coal, oil and gas companies)
Fossil fuel exploration exclusion – indirect involvement
The fund manager excludes companies with indirect involvement in fossil fuel exploration. For example they would be expected to exclude banks and insurance companies that are effectively enabling new coal, oil and or gas reserves to be discovered and in due course extracted through the provision of necessary finance or services. Social / Employment
Mining exclusion
All mining companies excluded Ethical Values Led Exclusions
Tobacco and related product manufacturers excluded
Companies are excluded if they are involved in any aspect of the production chain for tobacco products, including cigarettes, vaping, e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars.
Armaments manufacturers avoided
Find funds that avoid companies that manufacture products intended specifically for military use. Fund strategies vary - particularly with regard to non-strategic military products. See fund literature for fund specific details.
Civilian firearms production exclusion
Find funds with a written civilian firearms exclusion policy - meaning that they will not invest in companies that make (or perhaps also sell) handguns made for non-military users.
Alcohol production excluded
Find funds that avoid investment in companies involved in the production of alcohol. Strategies vary; some funds allow a small proportion of profits to come from this area. See fund literature for further information.
Gambling avoidance policy
Find funds that avoid companies with significant involvement in the gambling industry. Some funds may allow a small proportion of profits to come from this area. See fund policy for further details.
Pornography avoidance policy
Find funds that avoid companies that derive significant income from pornography and related areas. Strategies vary. See fund details for further information. Governance & Management
Avoids companies with poor governance
Find funds that aim to avoid investing in companies with poor governance practices.(e.g. board structure, management practices etc.) Views may however vary on what counts as 'poor' practices - and funds may not immediately divest as they may prefer to work to encourage higher standards. See fund literature for further information.
Encourage board diversity e.g. gender
Fund managers encourage the companies they invest in to have more diverse board structures (e.g. more women on boards)
Encourage TCFD alignment for banks & insurance companies
Find fund managers that encourage the banks and insurance companies they invest in to publish climate change related financial information - as set out by the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (with the aim of helping investors measure and respond to climate risk).
Encourage higher ESG standards through stewardship activity
A core element of these funds will aim to encourage higher ESG standards through responsible ownership / stewardship / engagement /voting activity Asset Size
Over 50% large cap companies
Find funds that invests more than half of their money into what are commonly regarded as 'large companies'. This will typically mean that the market capitalisation (or value) of the companies they hold is in excess of £5 to £10 billion.
Invests mostly in large cap companies / assets
Find funds that have SRI strategies and focus their investment stock selection on larger companies. (e.g. over circa £5-£10bn) How The Fund Works
Negative selection bias
Find funds where their main 'ethical approach' is to avoid companies by using negative screening criteria. Read fund literature for further information.
Limited / few ethical exclusions
Find funds with few exclusions - typically for example exclude tobacco or companies that breach commonly adopted standards or norms such as the UN Global Compact.
ESG weighted / tilt
Find funds that invest more heavily in those that have higher ESG ratings/standards or scores and less heavily in companies with lower ESG ratings. Where this is central to a fund's strategy you should expect it to invest in most sectors. Strategies vary.
Significant harm exclusion
Aims to avoid companies that do significant harm. This originates from the EU’s sustainable finance ‘DNSH’ (do no significant harm) work, which is not necessarily used by UK investors.
Balances company 'pros and cons' / best in sector
Find funds that consider both the 'positive' and 'negative' aspects of company behaviour and make balanced, considered decisions as part of their investment approach. May apply to a range of different issues and policy areas.
SRI / ESG / Ethical policies explained on website
Find funds that have published explanations of their ethical, social and/or environmental policies online (i.e. fund decision making strategies/ buy/sell &/or asset management strategies). Unscreened Assets & Cash
All assets (except cash) meet published sustainability criteria
All assets held in the fund - except cash - meet the sustainability criteria published in fund documentation. Intended Clients & Product Options
Intended for investors interested in sustainability
Finds funds designed to meet the needs of individual investors with an interest in sustainability issues.
Available via an ISA (OEIC only)
Find funds that are available via a tax efficient ISA product wrapper.
Portfolio SRI / ESG options available (DFMs)
Only applicable for DFM’s & portfolio providers. Finds those that offer an SRI / ESG portfolio option
Bespoke SRI / ESG portfolios available (DFMs)
Only applicable for DFM’s & portfolio providers. Find service providers who offer bespoke ('personalised') SRI / ESG portfolio options Fund Management Company InformationAbout The Business
Boutique / specialist fund management company
Find fund management companies that are smaller or specialise in particular areas - notably, ideally ESG related. Strategies vary.
Responsible ownership / stewardship policy or strategy (AFM company wide)
Finds fund management companies that have a published company wide stewardship, engagement and / or responsible ownership policy or strategy that covers all investments. Stewardship typically involves encouraging higher ESG standards through voting and dialogue.
Vote all* shares at AGMs / EGMs (AFM company wide)
Find fund managers that vote all* the shares they own at Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General Meetings. A commitment to voting shares is a key indicator of 'responsible share ownership' demonstrating their support for or disagreement with management policy. (*situations can legitimately, occasionally occur where voting proves impossible, but in principle all shares should be voted.)
Responsible ownership policy for non SRI funds (AFM company wide)
Find funds run by fund managers that apply Responsible ownership or 'Stewardship' policies to all or most of their investment assets. This means active involvement (e.g. voting, dialogue) with the companies they invest in across funds (not normally limited to ethical or SRI options.) Read fund literature for further information.
Integrates ESG factors into all / most (AFM) fund research
Find fund management companies that consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues when deciding whether or not to invest in a company for all / almost all of their funds and other assets. This is increasingly seen as part of sound risk management. Resources
In-house responsible ownership / voting expertise
Find fund management companies that employ people to steer and support fund managers in voting shares at company AGM's and EGMs in ways that are consistent with encouraging higher ESG/sustainability standards.
Use specialist ESG / SRI / sustainability research companies
Find fund management companies that makes use of expert external research companies. This can help deliver specialist expertise and means resources are pooled with other investors. Company Wide Exclusions
Review(ing) carbon / fossil fuel exposure for all funds (AFM company wide)
Find funds / fund managers that are reviewing, or have reviewed, their exposure to carbon intensive industries including (but not only) mining, oil and gas companies. (Typically with reference to climate change.) Transparency
Full SRI / responsible ownership policy information on company website
Find companies that publish information about their sustainable and responsible investment strategies on their company website. Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Policy:The fund will not invest in companies engaged in the production of fossil fuels, alcohol, tobacco, gambling and armaments. In addition, quantitative and qualitative analysis is used to assess whether companies pay due attention and consideration to ESG concerns and demonstrate this through ESG policies and practice.
It is important to recognise that, while the media may focus on one specific aspect of these ESG building blocks at any point in time, as investors we need to maintain a balanced approach to all the stakeholder issues a company might face.
From an investment perspective, while the above considerations are embedded into our investment process, our overriding aim is to generate superior investment returns for our clients. In this context we see the investment opportunity set as a spectrum ranging from Responsible companies that are seeking to protect capital by avoiding poor ESG practices, to Sustainable companies adopting progressive practices that may enhance value, through to Impact companies addressing ESG challenges that may or may not generate financial returns.
On a risk-adjusted basis, therefore, we believe Impact investing alone may inhibit the ability to satisfy our financial goals. As such, we expect the fund’s portfolio will be balanced across these three opportunity sets. Process:For quantitative ESG analysis, we use Refinitiv as our third-party data provider. Refinitiv is a leading, global data provider, and offers one of the most comprehensive ESG databases in the industry, with over 150 content research analysts trained to collect ESG data covering over 7,000 public companies globally.
Sourcing from annual reports, company websites, NGO websites, stock exchange filings, CSR reports and news sources, a subset of the most comparable and relevant data fields is used to power the overall company assessment and scoring process.
A company’s ESG performance is measured across ten main themes, grouped under Environmental (resource use, emissions, innovation), Social (workforce, human rights, community, product responsibility) and Governance (management, shareholders, CSR strategy). There is significant overlap between these themes and the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, which cover Human Rights, Labour, the Environment, and Anti-Corruption.
This analysis is performed separately from our general stock research and a stock will not be bought if it does not satisfy the criteria listed above. Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies:he fund is managed by a team led by Mark Wynne-Jones, Leah Bramwell and David Saunderson.
Mark (Director) studied at the London School of Economics and London Business School, is a member of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association and is a CFA Charterholder.
Leah (Director) read Economics at Newnham College, Cambridge and Economic History at Darwin College, Cambridge. Leah is a Chartered Wealth Manager and a CFA Charterholder.
David (Chief Executive) read Engineering at Downing College and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse.
Within their team, analysts work on both the general and ESG research of prospective holdings, as well as tracking existing ones.
DisclaimerDisclaimer As with all equity-based and bond-based investments, the value and the income therefrom can fall as well as rise and you may not get back all the money that you invested. The value of overseas securities will be influenced by the exchange rate used to convert these to sterling. Investments in stocks and shares should therefore be viewed as a medium to long-term investment. Past performance is not a guide to the future. |