Castlefield, the employee-owned ethical investment specialist, has launched the TM Castlefield Thoughtful World Equity Fund.
The TM Castlefield Thoughtful World Equity Fund will be co-managed by Fund Manager, James Buckley and Castlefield’s Head of Investment Management, Mark Elliott. It will draw on the internal resources of Castlefield’s in-house investment and stewardship team.
The Fund is formed from a combination of the CFP Castlefield Thoughtful UK Opportunities Fund and the CFP Castlefield Thoughtful European Fund, managed by Mark and James respectively. The approach will allow Castlefield to target the best possible investments on behalf of investors, regardless of location or where the shares are listed globally.
The TM Castlefield Thoughtful World Equity Fund will have a high-conviction portfolio of 40 to 50 large-cap global leaders, selected using Castlefield’s Thoughtful Investor® approach, in turn incorporating its proprietary B.E.S.T. stock selection process. *
The long-standing Thoughtful Investor® approach applies a stringent exclusionary screen and seeks to identify companies with positive environmental, social and transparency characteristics; as evidenced by 14 sustainability metrics. The process focusses on investing in financially successful companies, whilst actively engaging with investee businesses.
Mark Elliott, Head of Investment Management at Castlefield commented: “We’re excited about the launch of our new TM Castlefield Thoughtful World Equity Fund, allowing us to apply our Thoughtful Investor® approach to access the best investments globally. This has been developed over many years and emphasises a broad range of ethical considerations, using strong financial judgement and engagement.
“We chose the ‘Thoughtful Investor®’ term, as it perfectly encapsulates our ethical and values-led investment philosophy. Expanding this global strategy allows us to select the best investments, wherever they’re listed.”
“Most of our clients will already have global markets exposure through third-party funds held in their portfolios. With this launch, we’ll be able to gain greater control of the individual holdings within our portfolios – ensuring clients have confidence that the firms they’re invested in collectively score highly against 14 sustainability metrics, while offering good financial prospects.”
Co-manager, James Buckley, added: “As values-based investors, we’re always keen to get as close as possible to the companies we invest in. We’re very selective about the companies we hold and actively engage with them on the issues that are important to our investors.
“We see the new Fund as a core holding for clients who want to invest in a focused portfolio of global leaders, offering strong ethical credentials.
“We take our role as stewards of our clients’ investments seriously. By utilising Castlefield’s investment and stewardship team to make our own global strategy widely available, it means we can better represent client values through direct engagement with investee firms. Managing the fund ourselves also helps us avoid unexpected holdings, unintentional portfolio concentration or style clashes that can occur when allocating clients’ money purely to external managers.”
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