Equities

Global equity portfolio managers have a very large universe of investments to choose from, which means it is vital to have an investment team with the background to identify opportunities with the most growth potential. We have decades of experience investing for clients across different sectors, geographies and economic climates, and we can offer diversification via a range of strategies. 

Why global growth?
Investing in companies with high revenue growth and sustainable profit margins has been recognised as one of the main sources of shareholder returns over the long run. These characteristics are supported by companies’ exposure to several long-term themes influencing the global economy. 

Why multi-factor investing?
For more than 50 years, investors have identified and classified the common characteristics of companies that have delivered an identifiable and repeatable pattern of return – this is the essence of ‘factor investing’. Our multi-factor strategy considers a range of proprietary insights into the value, quality, growth of and sentiment to the earnings of companies on a global scale.

Multi-factor investing seeks to smooth the volatility of return that may come from any one individual factor and provides exposure to an array of fundamental insights that are rewarded at different stages of the economic cycle. 

Why small cap / mid cap? 
Investing in smaller companies can be attractive for a number of reasons. This includes being nimble and agile enough to quickly position themselves to benefit from new trends without legacy infrastructure issues, and typically having greater exposure to their domestic economies. While the definition of ‘small’ varies from market to market, they tend to account for the bottom 25% of companies in a market or region by market capitalisation. They also tend to be less well covered by analysts so may be overlooked by other investors. 

Smaller companies often have huge potential and can be more dynamic than their larger counterparts. They can also be more sheltered from the global macroeconomic events that affect larger multi-national businesses, so may offer diversification benefits for investors. They can also be higher risk – as smaller companies can be more vulnerable to shocks - so having an experienced fund manager is paramount to sourcing opportunities that can potentially generate a rich source of value.     

Our strategy 
We have more than three decades of experience investing in small and mid-cap stocks. Our range of strategies offer investors exposure to global markets, including Europe, the UK and the US.

Our Next Generation strategy invests in innovative global smaller companies at the forefront of transformational changes such as automation, digitalisation, the energy transition or changing consumption habits.

In today’s highly disruptive world, these approaches are typically focused around the two main drivers of long-term corporate behaviour – demographic shifts and technological changes. 

We provide strategies for thematic and sector investing which address the key themes which we believe will offer the best opportunities for long-term structural growth for equity investors.

Why Global Thematics? 
Global Thematics is about identifying companies and sectors that are tapping into multi-decade demographic and technological changes, regardless of their region or sector.

The way that companies do business has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. However, the way that many investors approach equities has remained the same. These days, companies are increasingly global and multi-sector in their approach, which means that investors could be missing out on potentially higher equity returns.

We believe that the evolving economy gives investors access to potentially attractive opportunities with long-term structural growth, regardless of how companies are defined geographically or from a sector perspective.

Our strategy 
Our Global Thematics strategy offers investors a single point of access to high-quality companies benefiting from one or more of the five major growth themes within the evolving economy: Ageing and Lifestyle, Connected Consumer, Automation, Clean Tech, and Transitioning Societies. 

Why automation? 
Automation began life on the factory floor, but it's evolved to influence multiple aspects of how we live and work.  
 
While we're still in the early stages of this disruptive trend, the long-term potential of automation and robotics is becoming clear to a growing number of equity investors.  

Our strategy 
Our Robotech strategy focuses on four areas: 

• Industrial automation: Technological developments are helping to improve industrial processes outside of automotive, such as food processing, electronic products, logistics and general manufacturing. 
• Transportation: Driver-assist and autonomous vehicles, and enhanced vehicle safety, are creating opportunities for suppliers of automotive content.  
• Healthcare: Focused on the transition from traditional methods to advanced healthcare applications in the areas of robotic surgery and remote healthcare. 
• Technology enablers: The intelligent systems – sensors, software and semiconductors – that can help optimise and monitor automated applications. 

Why connected consumer? 
Widespread internet access means today's consumers are in a better position to make informed purchases – anytime, anywhere, on any platform. 

Smartphones have given people unprecedented access and choice when it comes to shopping. Digitally savvy companies now offer a broader selection of goods, faster delivery, secure payments, and 24/7 mobile access. Keeping pace with technological advancements should enable companies to engage their customers more deeply in an increasingly digital economy.

Our strategy 
To help investors tap into multi-decade opportunities across the entire e-commerce value chain, our Digital Economy strategy focuses on the 4 Ds: 

• Discovery: Search engines, online advertising and social media are increasingly becoming the starting point when searching for and/or discovering products and services online. 
• Decisions: E-commerce, web portals and mobile apps provide consumers with convenient and reliable product choices. Companies involved in the decision-making process are dominated by online disruptive firms taking market share from traditional businesses. 
• Delivery: The proliferation of e-commerce has led to rapid growth within digital payments, and is also pushing companies to look for supply chain efficiencies to deliver goods everywhere within a specified timeframe – also known as ‘same-day’ or ‘next-day’ delivery. 
• Data & Enablers: Such firms help not only companies that are digital natives, but also digital migrants who need to transform themselves to remain relevant. 

Why ageing and lifestyle? 
As life expectancies rise across the globe, the way people live is rapidly changing. Many companies are having to rapidly adapt to the needs of this large and expanding demographic, with retiring and elderly generations representing a growing proportion of consumption growth. 

Living longer also naturally incurs higher healthcare costs, with personal healthcare spending in developed markets expected to rise significantly with age.   

This is potentially creating compelling investment opportunities in companies that aim to cater to these growing trends.  

Our strategy 
Our Longevity Economy strategy invests in companies focused on four areas associated with the financial implications of ageing populations:  

• Wellness: Improving the length of peoples’ healthy lifespans by modifying unhealthy behaviours with more active and healthier lifestyles; aiming to prevent diseases through vaccinations; digital diagnostics; screening and monitoring. 
• Silver spending: The discretionary spend related to the ‘over 60s’ population represents a huge opportunity for businesses. This is especially significant considering an increasing spend on areas unrelated to healthcare. 
• Senior Care: Focusing on the needs of an expanding senior population and supporting the increasing dependency of those aged 80 and over.  
• Treatment: Treating medical conditions that are caused by lifestyle factors or that primarily affect the over 60s; chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia and arthritis; and mobility conditions like joint replacement therapies. 

Why Clean Technology? 
Clean technology – or clean tech - refers to companies whose products and services improve resource sustainability, support the energy transition (from fossil fuel-based to zero-carbon energy production and storage), or address the issue of water scarcity. 

The 2010s was the worst decade on record for economic losses from natural disasters, underscoring the urgency to manage carbon emissions and limit global warming. Awareness of the impact of pollution is being increasingly driven by governments, with strong regulatory support across Europe, the US and China. As concerns over the sustainability of human civilisation on earth deepen, consumers are demanding more of companies and governments. 

We believe this is creating potentially compelling investment opportunities in the companies seeking to address these challenges.  

Our strategy 
Our Clean Economy strategy focuses on companies operating across four key areas which are providing innovative solutions to the energy transition and the finite amount of natural resources: 

• Low Carbon Transport: Innovation in battery technology and the electric powertrain market are driving the development of the electric vehicles market. 
• Smart Energy: The increasing use of new innovative solutions such as static energy storage, smart grid and better building insulation, combined with a more attractive cost of renewable energy, are directly supporting the energy transition.  
• Agriculture & Food Industry: Agricultural technology solutions, and lab-grown or plant-based meat could support better use of land and limit the carbon emissions produced by the industry – as could solutions that reduce food waste.  
• Natural Resource Preservation: Businesses are increasingly developing technologies and creating solutions that improve recycling and reusing practices, as well as managing water supply and quality.  

Why Transitioning Societies? 
Transitioning societies represent the change in consumption patterns across frontier, emerging and developed markets. 

A major wealth shift is occurring over the next decade, as three billion people are forecast to move from poverty into the middle class by 2030⁴ . As a result, consumption patterns over time are expected to transition from fulfilling basic needs to more aspirational purchases. 

Our strategy 
Our All China and Emerging Markets strategies look to invest in companies that broadly fit into one or more of the five major growth themes: Ageing and Lifestyle, Connected Consumer, Automation, Clean Tech, and Transitioning Societies.  

Why Next Generation?
The wave of innovation over the past decade has enabled the emergence of smaller businesses, which are agile enough to create new business models and launch new products and services that tap into the latest consumer trends. These companies challenge incumbents with an innovative offering and constitutes the next generation of leaders who, we believe, will experience secular growth over multiple years.

Our strategy
Our Next Generation strategy offers investors access to innovative companies within lesser known or covered smaller market cap segments which are at the forefront of transformational changes such as the energy transition, digitalisation, automation or emerging consumption habits.

Why Social Progress?
From basic social needs such as affordable housing and financial inclusion to advanced need for sustaining human progress like nutrition and education – such challenges have a huge scale of unmet demands, which is creating potentially compelling opportunities for companies to improve outcomes for under-served parts of society.

Our strategy
Our Social Progress strategy aims to deliver long-term financial performance by investing in companies, which support progress in society that will help shape a more sustainable future for our communities and the world in which we live. 

Why Technology? 
We are increasingly dependent on technology in our everyday lives. At the heart of this evolution are innovative companies that are changing the way we work, shop, build relationships, and find information.  
 
Governments, businesses and consumers are adopting new technologies and adapting to change faster than any other time in history.  

New technologies can also lead to the emergence of innovative business models, which could provide investors willing to back unconventional ideas with potentially compelling growth opportunities. 

Our strategy 
Our Technology strategy offers investors the opportunity to invest in companies that are providing innovative solutions across a range of areas including software as a service, big data, cloud computing and e-commerce.  

Why Biotech? 
Biotechnology – or biotech – uses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve the quality of our lives. 
 
In a world where life expectancies are increasing, so too is the demand for healthcare. Over the years, key themes have emerged such as the advancement of targeted and genetic therapies, a more supportive regulatory environment, and technological advancements that are key to unlocking medical breakthroughs. 

Our strategy 
Our Biotech strategy invests in companies across many therapeutic areas spanning the entire market-cap spectrum – namely gene therapy, gene editing, cell therapy and gene silencing oligonucleotides (similar to short strands of DNA).  

Why Healthcare? 
As the global population grows and lifespans extend further, more opportunities are being created to invest in healthcare companies that are providing innovation to improve peoples’ quality and length of life.   

Understanding, preventing and treating diseases associated with ageing will be key to improving human, social and economic wellbeing – and this is creating opportunities for companies looking to address these chronic conditions.  

As medicine builds a better understanding of the mechanisms of disease, powered by new technologies, the services and systems of support needed to facilitate treatments will increase.  

From diagnosis to drug prescriptions, the entire ecosystem of healthcare will be affected by advances in digital health and medical technology equipment. 

Our strategy 
Our Healthcare strategy offers investors the opportunity to invest across the entire healthcare ecosystem - from large pharmaceuticals and biotechnology / medical technology companies through to life-science tools and healthcare IT businesses.  

Our sustainable and impact strategies are designed with the purpose of supporting the transition to a more sustainable economy. Investment decisions are guided by our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment themes, or seek to make a measurable positive impact on the world, while seeking to provide investors with a financial return.

Why sustainable investing? 
Sustainable strategies aim to invest in companies that promote environmental sustainability – guided by our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) themes – while also delivering financial returns.

Companies are adapting to their customers’ rising expectations around sustainable practices. These practices are backed by government and regulatory measures, requiring them to incorporate sustainability measures in company information. As these practices become embedded in the corporate world, incorporating ESG analysis into the investment processes could help identify new risks and opportunities. 
 

Our Strategies
We offer a range of actively managed sustainable equity and multi-asset strategies. 

The UK Sustainable Equity strategy, AXA Global Sustainable Managed, and AXA Global Sustainable Distribution Funds invest in shares of listed companies which the fund managers believe, through analysis and engagement, have leading or improving ESG practices. Both the AXA Global Sustainable Managed and AXA Global Sustainable Distribution Funds invest in shares and bonds to help meet their investment objectives. Together with UK Sustainable Equity, these funds offer investors options to suit different investment goals within a robust sustainability framework.

Our Sustainable Europe and Sustainable Eurozone strategies focus on climate change and companies with outstanding ESG credentials.

We also offer a Global Factors - Sustainable Equity strategy which follows a factor-based investment approach – focused on low volatility and high-quality factors – while actively investing in a sustainable way.

Why Impact Investing?
Impact strategies seek to deliver, in ‘equal measure’, a financial return, and a positive and measurable outcome on specific issues or themes such as climate change, biodiversity, and social inequality. These funds also target UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of their investment approach.

For a growing number of investors, financial returns are no longer enough. Today, investors are looking for more from their investments, namely companies providing innovative products and services which are directly positively contributing to the environment or society.
 

Investing for people
Our Social Progress strategy aims to deliver long-term financial performance by investing in companies that support progress in society, helping shape a more sustainable future for our communities and the world in which we live.
 

Investing for the planet
In our Clean Economy strategy, we target companies whose activities should contribute to the energy transition and resource optimisation. By investing across the Clean Economy in areas such as low carbon transport, smart energy, the agriculture and food industry, and natural resource preservation, we aim to provide investors with access to high-quality companies operating across multiple industries around the world.

Our Biodiversity strategy invests in listed companies that aim to achieve a measurable and effective impact on the preservation of life on land, water, and air while providing financial returns for investors.  We believe this can help to recognise, drive, and incentivise those companies with a material and demonstrable mission to develop innovative sustainable products and services.
 

Investing for people & planet
Our People & Planet strategy brings together our impact investing expertise across a broad range of environmental and social themes. This actively managed, unconstrained equity strategy aims to generate financial returns by investing in companies making measurable, positive contributions to some of the most urgent social and environmental problems the world is facing.

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Invest in a specific geography, whether that's a continent like Europe, a region like emerging markets, or even a single country like the US or Japan. 

Our teams use local market and regional expertise to explore investment opportunities all over the world. From the biggest global economy and largest equity market in the US, to exciting opportunities in Europe, the UK, and future economic powerhouses in Asia and emerging markets. 

Why US equities? 
US equities can provide investors with exposure to some of the most internationally recognisable companies.    

The US stock market is one of the largest in the world, comprising both a continuous stream of new and disruptive companies as well as world-leading innovative companies in sectors such as technology, entertainment and healthcare. The US not only has the world’s largest consumer market, it also leads the way on research and development spending.   

Our strategy 

We offer a range of strategies with different risk and return profiles for investors seeking exposure to this dynamic equity market. 

Our American Growth strategy provides investors with the opportunity to invest in a concentrated portfolio of innovative large and mid-cap companies.

Our quantitative strategies seek diversified exposure to companies that may be undervalued, have high earnings quality or superior earnings growth prospects. For investors seeking a low active risk approach to US equities, our Enhanced Index strategy combines the benefits of both passive investing and active management, and aims to deliver benchmark outperformance – against the S&P 500 - with low active risk at an attractive price.

Why European / Eurozone equities?
Europe is one of the oldest and most liquid markets in the world, comprising many leading companies across all market capitalisations including small and micro-caps – and particularly in traditional areas such as industrials, financials and luxury goods. 

A well-regulated market for the most part, Europe is also leading the charge in responsible investing and climate change, backed by ongoing support from the European Central Bank. Companies in the region are typically more advanced than elsewhere in the world in terms of ESG reporting, governance, transparency and ambitious targets towards net zero emissions. 

Our strategy
Our strategies focus on pan-European and Eurozone markets, including the UK and Switzerland. Our approach combines fundamental, bottom-up stock selection with in-depth company analysis and engagement. 

Why UK equities? 
UK equities can provide an attractive long-term investment prospect, thanks to the mix of domestic and multi-national companies available on the UK stock market. 

The UK is the largest and most liquid market in Europe, and has historically paid attractive levels of dividends to investors. The UK stock market also benefits from high regulatory standards and corporate governance.

Our strategy
Our unconstrained fundamental strategies provide investors with exposure to a diverse selection of UK-listed companies across all market capitalisations - and access to both UK and global profit streams, with the aim of delivering long-term growth of capital and/or income through compounded earnings and dividends.

Why emerging markets / Asian equities?
Emerging markets and Asian equities can offer investors access to companies in the world’s fastest-growing economies.   

Accounting for a significant proportion of the global population, emerging markets are expected to be bigger than developed markets over the long term, potentially providing opportunities for investors. Emerging markets offer investors access to many world-leading technology companies, as well those best-placed to access rapidly changes patterns of consumer spending.    

While these regions are developing rapidly and the pool of potential investment opportunities widens further, the markets remain deep. Coupled with increased risks attributed to shifting economic and political environments, experienced fund managers are needed to balance these delicate factors and source the companies with the most attractive investment profiles. 

Our fund managers combine a global view with thematic, sector and local expertise to identify potentially compelling investment opportunities. 

Our strategy 
We take a multi-cap approach to emerging markets and Asia, offering investors the chance to gain exposure to a diverse range of markets. This comprises All China strategies, which include Chinese A-shares (the stock shares of mainland China-based companies) that trade on the main Chinese stock exchanges: the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE). 

Why single-country equities? 
Single-country equities can expose investors to fresh opportunities in countries that may be under-represented in a global or regional index.

A single-country strategy can prove useful when an investor feels that a particular country has the potential to outperform the broader market thanks to its specific features (sector biases, currency diversification etc.) – or if an investor aims to build a diversified portfolio by purchasing several country-specific products. 

Our strategy
Our strategies offer access to investment opportunities in several developed single-country markets such as Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and Japan.