What is the fund objective?
The investment objective of the American Equity Fund is to seek long-term capital appreciation by investing in companies in North America, including Canada, but excluding Mexico. The Fund is denominated in US$ with GBP and € as an additional dealing currency.
For more information please see the prospectus.
What is the fund’s investment approach?
This fund is managed against the S&P 500 Index using a relatively concentrated bottom-up approach. The managers conduct much of the stock research for this product, seeking out attractively valued, fundamental growth stocks with the potential for earnings surprise.
Idea generation involves a large list of external brokers, together with the managers’ own company visiting programme. They can also draw input from the international (EAFE) team. They forecast earnings based on assumptions that can be significantly different from consensus in terms of margins, revenue growth and earnings, testing ideas and numbers against a variety of broker forecasts. They are increasingly considering earnings and valuations on a three to five year view for core ideas (minimum 80% of the fund) rather than one to two years as before, with shorter-term ideas limited to 20% of the fund. There is a natural bias to mid-caps, but larger names are held both for growth potential and portfolio construction reasons.
Sector deviations are limited to +/-10% versus index but the portfolio tends to be closer to index to ensure a stock-picking focus. It comprises 40-60 names, with cash generally kept below 5%.
Who is the Fund Manager?
The US Equity team is made up of two managers, Anthony Gifford and Nick Cowley, who now operate independently of the global multi-strategy team (formally the US multi-strategy team). Gifford has 17 years’ investment experience, 10 on US equities and Cowley has 11 and eight respectively.
They co-manage the fund and between them are responsible for around $500m in US assets. They can still draw on imput from the multi-strategy team, which includes two members who focus predominantly on the US. Nick Cowley – computer science and maths (York University), MSc business finance (Brunel Univeristy), started his career at Chiswell Associates in 1998 on overseas equities. He moved to cover US equities in 2001. In 2004 he joined Henderson as a US fund manager.
Who is Henderson Horizon?
Henderson Group is the holding company of the investment management group Henderson Global Investors.
The group's principal place of business is in London and since December 2003 has been listed on the London Stock Exchange and Australian Securities Exchange - appearing in the FTSE 250 and ASX 200 indices. Henderson Group has approximately 125,000 shareholders worldwide. Since 31 October 2008, the Group has been incorporated in Jersey and is tax-resident in the Republic of Ireland.
Established in 1934 to administer the estates of Alexander Henderson, the first Lord Faringdon, Henderson Global Investors (Henderson) is a leading independent global asset management firm. The company provides its institutional, retail and high net-worth clients access to skilled investment professionals representing a broad range of asset classes, including equities, fixed income, property and private equity. With its principal place of business in London, Henderson is one of Europe's largest investment managers, with £58.1 billion assets under management (as at 31 December 2009) and employs around 930 people worldwide