US Alpha

We don’t want to own one or two of any decade’s top outperformers. We want to hold them all. Focusing on growing businesses is the best way to drive returns, and it’s clear that not all such opportunities look the same.

‘More ways to win’ makes sense in a market as rich and deep as North America. We are inspired by diversity, and our broad approach gives us the best chance of finding the most exciting prospects in the US in whatever industry we find them while diversifying the drivers of risks. 

Our objective is to perform 2 per cent above the S&P 500 per annum, over rolling five-year periods by investing in a broad range of exceptional growth businesses. We believe this to be a reasonable estimate of the amount by which we can outperform in the long term, considering the opportunity set and the many types of growth our companies exhibit.

We invest in three types of companies. Where the market underestimates the growth of exceptional firms, we look for ‘disruptors’, with young cultures and inventive founders. Where duration is underappreciated, we look for ‘adaptors’, which know whether to preserve an asset or embrace change. And in turbulent industries, we look for ‘pilots’, which put capital allocation above all else. The result is a portfolio with a low overlap with the index and low turnover, which we are confident can deliver differentiated long-term results.