The investment case for “doing good” Peter Michaelis Sustainable investment is not only for investors who want their investments to “do good” and benefit society. We believe there is also a compelling investment case for all investors taking this approach. This is because long-term transformative developments, such as technological and medical advancements, not only have positive impacts on society, they have the potential to deliver attractive returns for investors as well. Read more Liontrust’s Ghoulish Gallery Matt Tonge, Mike Appleby, Stephen Bailey, Olly Russ, John Husselbee, Mark Williams & James Inglis-Jones Our fund managers highlight the charts, stats and facts with the potential to spook investors this Halloween and explain how their portfolios are positioned to withstand them. Read more Sustainable business Mike Appleby Sustainable investment offers business opportunities to advisers because we believe that interest in and demand for this area will only continue to grow. Read more Investing for tomorrow, today Peter Michaelis Sustainability is an increasingly important theme for today’s consumers, who want what they wear, eat and even drive to both benefit themselves and have a positive impact on the world around them. Sustainable investment also has the potential to have positive impacts on society and to deliver attractive returns for investors as well. Read more The PRI 12 years on Peter Michaelis 'We must work to make companies do more to respect human rights; to allow collective bargaining; we must develop ways to reduce inequality, to curtail CEO pay; we must accelerate decarbonisation; rein in the tech giants and ensure we achieve the Sustainable Development goals.' Read more How we are playing the interest rate inflexion Jamie Clark Jamie Clark highlights three Macro-Themes which he believes are set to benefit from higher UK interest rates. Read more Banking on European growth Olly Russ Nordea’s decision to relocate from Sweden to Finland has two important implications for investors in the sector: first, banks are once again welcomed by governments following their post-crisis fall from grace; secondly, and consequently, the Europe-wide trend for higher tax and capital requirements may have finally met effective resistance from bank management. Read more Job gains mean higher rates are coming Jamie Clark Guess what? Interest rates can go up, as well as down. This was the strikingly clear and somewhat obvious import from the text accompanying the Bank of England’s unchanged rate decision yesterday. Read more What does the BoE’s rate hint mean for stock pickers? Samantha Gleave “…monetary policy could need to be tightened by a somewhat greater extent over the forecast period than current market expectations.” Monetary Policy Committee Decision, 14 September 2017. Read more 3 success stories and 3 to watch Matt Tonge 18 months on from the Fund’s launch, co-manager Matt Tonge takes a look at three ‘success stories’ which have already graduated from the micro cap space and highlights three ‘ones to watch’ from the companies the team has bought so far this year. Read more Is China’s debt “dangerous”? Mark Williams Headlines can be misleading, as proved by last week’s IMF report on China. “IMF warns China over ‘dangerous levels of debt’’’ reported the FT, quoting the IMF statement that “international experience suggests that China’s current credit trajectory is dangerous with increasing risks of a disruptive adjustment”. Read more The best of times, the worst of times John Husselbee We are living through a time of historic contradictions: political turbulence and yet market highs and low market volatility. John Husselbee analyses four potential triggers that might lead to market falls in the second half of the year. Read more Three reasons to be cautious on Australia Mark Williams The Liontrust Asia Income Fund has had relatively little exposure to Australia since its launch, which to date has been a positive for the portfolio. Here we look at three of the main reasons for our cautious stance. Read more Is the FDA stubbing out tobacco stocks? Jamie Clark At the end of July the tobacco industry was dealt another blow, this time by the US Food and Drug Administration, which committed to cutting nicotine levels in a bid to reduce addiction to cigarettes. This intervention reinforces why we have long-avoided tobacco stocks within our Macro Equity Income and Macro UK Growth funds. Read more Why we cut our AstraZeneca holding Stephen Bailey Stephen Bailey comments on pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca following news that the “Mystic” study - its flagship research into lung cancer treatment - has failed. Read more Sea of opportunity in Europe has tide turning for earnings Olly Russ Liontrust’s European Income fund managers Olly Russ and Oisin O’Leary speak with Citywire about the good news stories they’re finding in Europe. Read more Why we look for businesses which don’t rely on regulation Neil Brown Neil Brown, co-manager on the Liontrust Sustainable Investment team, speaks to CNBC’s Squawk Box. Read more Living in a low-volatility world John Husselbee Volatility – or the current lack of it – is a hot topic in investment circles, with the so-called Fear index in the US (known as the Vix) sitting at all-time lows. Read more Seoul searching – why we have increased our Korea exposure Mark Williams Last week I returned from spending four days in Seoul. There I had met the management teams of 19 companies, all of whom paid out dividends, with yields averaging almost 3%. Read more Reports of Quality’s death are greatly exaggerated Julian Fosh Over the last year or so, there has been a growing investment debate over the prospects for ‘quality’ and ‘value’ investment styles. The concern for some is that shares in high-quality companies have performed very well, and could be vulnerable to a correction relative to ‘value’ stocks. Read more The Asian Financial Crisis: 20 years on Mark Williams & Carolyn Chan In the summer of 1997, the devaluation of the Thai Baht marked the beginning of the Asian Financial Crisis. Loss of investor confidence in the region led to further capital flight, with net private capital inflows drying up from US$110bn in 1996 to net outflows of US$11bn for the crisis-hit countries. Read more The return of confidence in Europe Olly Russ This weekend we saw the Italian government bail out two failing banks (Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza) in an arrangement which could cost the taxpayer €17bn, while handing off the ‘good assets’ to Intesa Sanpaolo. Read more Five small & mid-cap picks Julian Fosh The Liontrust UK Growth Fund invests in companies with Economic Advantage characteristics across the UK market cap spectrum. We currently have over a third of the Fund invested in small and mid-cap stocks and here I highlight five of the best. Read more What is the next frontier in the digital age? Simon Clements The digital age has exploded onto the scene and changed the world in many ways. Most of us now feel lost if we don’t have our smartphone close to hand, while misplacing it feels a bit like losing an arm. Read more What do FTSE all-time highs mean for investors? Jamie Clark, Stephen Bailey With the FTSE100 notching up 16 all-time closing highs so far in 2017, and currently sitting only seven points shy of last week’s record level of 7,522, we invited Macro-Thematic fund managers Jamie Clark and Stephen Bailey to assess whether this has any implications for investors in UK equities. Read more A postcard from the West Coast Simon Clements Having spent the last week visiting the West Coast of the US, I was struck by the innovation and growth of businesses in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles. Read more Jackanory – the life insurers’ bears are reading the wrong story Jamie Clark The Liontrust Macro Equity Income Fund’s demographics theme is centered around the identification of corporate beneficiaries of ageing populations. Read more Where next for Opec? Stephen Bailey Opec has backed itself into a corner as it looks to prolong production cuts ahead of Saudi Arabia’s mooted IPO of Aramco, the state-owned operator. Read more #whomademyclothes Neil Brown This Sunday marks the end of Fashion Revolution Week, the centrepiece of a campaign to increase transparency in the global garment industry. Read more Improving prospects for one of Asia’s cheapest markets Mark Williams Over twelve months to the end of March the KOSPI, South Korea’s main equity index, has risen by almost 13% in US$ terms. Read more Running the rule over Trump’s first 100 days John Husselbee, Jamie Clark, Mark Williams, James Inglis-Jones & Olly Russ As President Trump approaches his 100th day in office (29 April), Liontrust’s fund managers take a look at his impact on markets. Read more Tapping into the Digital Economy Victoria Stevens It’s hard to attach a value to ‘digital economy’ benefits for any given company, but earlier this year the US mega-deal between Verizon and Yahoo gave us an example of how much it can cost to get your digital strategy wrong: $350m. Read more It’s the economy (not politics) Olly Russ Today’s Dutch election result saw the incumbent centre-right VVD party beat populist anti-immigration candidate Geert Wilder’s eurosceptic PVV party. Read more Great Expectations? John Husselbee Financial markets are often said to be driven by investor expectations, the so-called fear and greed. This is perhaps best summarised by the frequently quoted father of value investing, Benjamin Graham: "In the short run, the market is a voting machine but, in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” Read more Should investors in Asia worry about Trump? Mark Williams In the run-up to the US Presidential election, Donald Trump loudly lambasted the Chinese, threatening to attack what he seemed to see as iniquitous trade policies. Before the vote he threatened to retaliate for China ‘raping’ America on trade, to impose massive tariffs on Chinese imports and on his first day in the White House labelled China a currency manipulator. Read more Five European small cap picks Samantha Gleave In this blog, I am taking the opportunity to look at five of the stocks we have included in the GF European Smaller Companies Fund, which we launched at the start of February. Read more Beware over-paying for forecast growth James Inglis-Jones We hold an upbeat assessment of the outlook for European equities this year but we are very cognisant of the need to limit exposure to some extreme valuations being afforded to stocks meeting certain investment characteristics. Read more Five stocks to crow about in the Year of the Rooster Mark Williams This article was first published by Citywire Wealth Manager on 16 February 2017 • Lite-0n Technology Corp: Giving you the dual-camera you never knew you wanted Lite-On manufactures power supplies, components for consumer electronics, and optoelectronics. Read more Taking the edge off our pharma exposure Jamie Clark We are longstanding investors in the pharmaceutical sector, but think investors should be more critical in evaluating the chance of drug pipeline failure and risks to capital. Read more What prospects for China in the Year of the Rooster? Mark Williams The Liontrust Asia Income Fund had slightly over 40% exposure to Hong Kong and China at the start of the year. All of this is via companies listed in Hong Kong (not A-shares, listed in the Chinese mainland markets), but they are companies with exposure to the mainland Chinese market, rather than the Hong Kong economy, which we think will struggle in a world of rising United State interest rates. Read more Sustainable Future funds emit much less carbon dioxide than their benchmark Mike Appleby Mike Appleby, Investment Manager analyses how much carbon dioxide is emitted by our funds compared to the markets they invest in. Read more Liontrust fund managers’ “Reasons to be Cheerful” in 2017 Having given us their Halloween “Reasons to be Fearful”, we asked the same Liontrust fund managers to highlight aspects of their research which point to a more optimistic outlook for 2017. Read more Renzi loses Italian Job Olly Russ As both betting markets and opinion polls predicted (for once), Italian PM Matteo Renzi lost his referendum for constitutional reform, and with it his job. Although the polls were correct in predicting the outcome, they understated the emphatic margin by which the proposals were defeated, which now look to be 59:41 in favour of a ‘No’. Renzi took the hint, and in a somewhat rambling speech eventually managed to announce his intention to tender his resignation later this afternoon. Read more A desynchronising world John Husselbee Are you still playing Pokémon Go? The online game was released to the world in early July this year and soon went viral over the summer. However the game today is seemingly unfashionable with its rapid decline in recent months clearly charted by Google Trends. And whilst gamers are abandoning Pokémon Go, it seems that investors are beginning to shy away from government bonds. Read more How will markets react to the Italian referendum result? Olly Russ The key question in European investment at the moment is of course ‘Do you approve the text of the constitutional bill concerning "Dispositions for the surmounting of perfect bicameralism, the reduction of the number of Members of Parliament, the reduction of institutional operating costs, the abolition of CNEL and the revision of Title V of Part II of the Constitution," which was approved by Parliament and published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 88, on April 15, 2016?’. Read more Autumn Statement initial thoughts Jamie Clark Philip Hammond’s inaugural – and final – Autumn Statement confirms our view that fiscal activism has made an emphatic comeback. Read more What ‘Trump-priming’ of US economy means for our Macro-Themes Jamie Clark This week’s US election outcome presents a timely opportunity to revisit and update our prior blog entry. Read more Where investors should seek sanctuary from inflation Anthony Cross A key tenet of our investment process is the importance of barriers to competition. We have moulded our approach around the identification of characteristics which we believe allow companies to sustain profits in the face of competitive threats. It is this theoretical ability to generate a higher than average level of profitability for longer than expected which we refer to as Economic Advantage. Read more Liontrust fund managers’ scariest charts As Halloween approaches, Liontrust’s fund managers highlight the most frightening data they’ve come across in their research Read more Why we remain underweight India despite reform progress Shashank Savla The approval of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in August was an important step for India, and contributes to us holding a positive medium-term outlook for the country. Read more