Trojan Ethical Fund

Troy

Overview

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A multi-asset ethical fund that aims to protect investors’ capital and grow its value in real terms over the long term. We combine cautious asset allocation with careful selection of high-quality companies, purchased at fair valuations.

What does the Fund do?

Through a long-term, long-only approach, the Fund invests in a broad range of asset classes, in line with ethical exclusion criteria. We exclude certain equities, bonds and gold-related investments.

View our ethical exclusion criteria

Why this Fund?

Aimed at investors who want an ethical multi-asset fund emphasising capital preservation and absolute returns. The Fund’s emphasis on downside risk management and high-quality securities aim to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns over the long-term. The Fund integrates ESG and stewardship in accordance with Troy’s Responsible Investment & Stewardship Policy and also adheres to Troy’s Climate Change Mitigation Policy, in accordance with article 8 of SFDR.

View our SFDR disclosure

The team

Charlotte Yonge CFA

Senior Fund Manager

Bio

Charlotte Yonge CFA

Senior Fund Manager

Charlotte is the Assistant Fund Manager of the Trojan Fund and Personal Assets Trust and Fund Manager of the Trojan Ethical Fund, with responsibility for multi-asset coverage and the analysis of global companies and their selection for Troy’s portfolios.

Charlotte joined Troy in 2013 from Ruffer Investment Management, where she worked as an Investment Associate. Graduating from Cambridge with an MA in Modern Languages, Charlotte holds the CISI Diploma and is a CFA Charterholder.

Charlotte is also a Co-Founder of GAIN (Girls Are INvestors), a charity established to inform and inspire the next generation of young women to enter the investment management industry in the UK.

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Sebastian Lyon

Founder & Chief Investment Officer

Bio

Sebastian Lyon

Founder & Chief Investment Officer

Sebastian is Troy’s Chief Investment Officer and is responsible for Troy’s Multi-Asset Strategy. He is the Senior Fund Manager for the Trojan Fund and Investment Manager of Personal Assets Trust.

Sebastian began his career in 1989 at Singer & Friedlander Investment Management. Joining Stanhope Investment Management (the management company for the GEC Pension Fund) in 1995, he jointly managed the £2 billion equity portfolio and the Fund’s asset allocation. He was appointed Director in 1999, and in 2000 he left to establish Troy. Gaining his BSc in Politics from Southampton University, Sebastian holds the ASIP qualification and is an Associate Member of the CFA Society of the UK.

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Marc de Vos CFA

Investment Analyst

Bio

Marc de Vos CFA

Investment Analyst

Marc is an Investment Analyst working on the multi-asset mandates, with responsibility for analysis of global companies and their selection for Troy’s portfolios.

Marc joined Troy in June 2019 from RWC Asset Management, where he worked as an Investment Analyst. Marc holds a BEng in Electromechanical Engineering and a PhD in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Southampton University. Marc is a CFA Charterholder.

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Michael Kinsella

Investment Specialist

Bio

Michael Kinsella

Investment Specialist

Michael is an investment specialist on the Multi-Asset Strategy. Michael joined the Business Development Team at Troy in May 2016 from Veritas Investment Management where he worked as an Assistant Portfolio Manager.

Michael graduated from Dublin Business School with a BA (hons) in Business Studies in 2005. Michael holds a Masters in Wealth Management from the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investments and the IMC.

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Commentary

November 2024

Your Fund returned +0.8% during the month, compared to +2.5% for the FTSE All-Share Index (TR).

November was a busy month for our investment team, with colleagues meeting companies across the world, from Switzerland to Seattle.  Of portfolio holdings, we met with Unilever, Nestlé, Microsoft, and Visa, alongside various other companies not currently owned.  The preparation that goes into these meetings, combined with the discussions that follow, provide invaluable insights into current holdings and new ideas.

The most in-depth company encounters are often investor days hosted by the companies themselves, and we attended Unilever’s, Nestlé’s and Mastercard’s in the month.  Unilever’s event underlined our confidence in the company’s improved execution, which we wrote about in depth in October’s fact sheet.  When it comes to Nestlé, the shares have been weak since we reduced the holding at the beginning of 2022.  In hindsight, we should have sold more but we believe that there is a margin of safety in today’s valuation of 16x earnings and 4% dividend yield.  The investor day served to underline that Nestlé’s end-markets will remain challenging for some time, but that the company is increasing investment behind its brands and improving the focus of its innovation efforts.  We believe that shareholder returns from here are likely to be compelling.

One of our colleagues attended the Mastercard investor day and another met with Visa’s CFO.  We currently own Visa, Mastercard and American Express in the Fund.  These meetings, combined with an in-depth update on the sector written by the team, have helped in re-emphasising to us the attractiveness of investing in these payments networks.  Our holdings are well placed to enable the switch of commercial (business-to-business) payments from cash, cheque or bank transfer, to card transactions.  Businesses have been slower than consumers to digitise, but this is now happening from a low base.  On top of that, Visa’s revenues are increasingly comprised of value-added services which are growing strongly double digits.  We believe that, as the consumer card market becomes more mature, these will provide strong drivers of sales growth for many years to come.

Key facts

Fund Manager

Charlotte Yonge

Inception date

22/03/2019

Currency

Sterling

Available share classes

O, S, X

ISIN (O Class)

GB00BJP0XX17 (Acc)
GB00BJP0XY24 (Inc)

Sedol (O Class)

BJPOXX1 (Acc)
BJPOXY2 (Inc)

Benchmarks

For more information on the benchmarks used please refer to the ‘use of benchmarks’ section in the fund information sheet

Ongoing Charges

‘O’ (ordinary) shares: 1.02%
‘X’ (platform) shares: 0.87%

‘O’ ACC SHARE CLASS as at 20/12/2024

141.49p

Fund size as at 30/11/2024

£833m

‘O’ INC SHARE CLASS as at 20/12/2024

139.31p

Performance

Performance is calculated on a total return basis, net of fees, in sterling terms.

Source: Lipper, Waystone Management UK Limited.

22/03/201930/11/201930/11/202130/11/202331/05/2024
Since Launch5 Year3 Year1 Year6 Months
Bank of England Base Rate12.411.911.45.32.6
UK Retail Price Index37.134.324.33.61.1
FTSE All-Share TR40.732.225.515.71.9
Trojan Ethical Fund O Accumulation41.832.79.39.64.7
Discrete Calendar Annual Returns (%)201920202021202220232024
Trojan Ethical Fund O Accumulation7.210.910.1-4.65.27.9

Performance is calculated on a total return basis, net of fees, in sterling terms. Past performance is not a guide to future performance

Source: Lipper, Waystone Management UK Limited. Since Launch (29/03/2019) to 30 November 2024.

Risk and Volatility since launch

Source: Lipper, Waystone Management UK Limited.

Risk Analysis Since Launch (22/03/2019)Trojan Ethical Fund O AccumulationFTSE All-Share TR
Total Return41.840.7
Max Drawdown-8.9-35.3
Best Month4.612.7
Worst Month-2.9-15.1
Positive Months69.161.8
Annualised Volatility4.913.7

Performance is calculated on a total return basis, net of fees, in sterling terms.

Maximum Drawdown measures the worst investment period

Annualised Volatility is measured by the annualised standard deviation of the monthly returns

Source: Lipper, Waystone Management UK Limited. As at 30 November 2024.

Asset allocation

Top 10 holdings (excluding government bonds)Fund %
Invesco Physical Gold8.56560401294665
Unilever3.80097916905634
Royal Mint Responsibly Sourced Physical Gold3.58955138659586
Visa3.41577749128346
Nestle3.19642680600239
Alphabet2.67925646290856
Microsoft2.29465947222725
Experian1.66758862613679
VeriSign1.56676026839301
American Express1.15275337861777
Total Top 1031.9293570741681
7 Other Equity holdings6.26766132900317
US TIPS31.8196854153019
Short-dated Gilts13.5713713952721
US Short-dated Treasuries13.157984409176
UK Index-Linked3.01517671776036
Cash0.238763659318449
Total100

Asset allocation and holdings subject to change. As at 30 November 2024.

 

Fund literature

Document name Date Open/download Archived documents
Factsheet     View archive Hide archive
UCITS KIID     View share classes Hide share classes

Fund Information Sheet

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Prospectus & Additional Investor Information     View archive Hide archive
Sustainability-related Disclosures     View documents Hide documents

Troy’s Ethical Exclusion Criteria

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Annual Report

 January 2024 View document Download document  

Interim Report

 July 2024 View document Download document  
Investment Report     View documents Hide documents
Special Paper     View papers Hide papers

Sustainable Investment Labels Statement

Sustainable investment labels help investors find products that have a specific sustainability goal. This fund does not have a UK sustainable investment label as it does not have a sustainable objective as part of its investment objective.  Despite not having a sustainable investment objective, when investing in companies, Troy integrates the analysis of sustainability characteristics into its investment decision-making. Troy also considers the steps companies are taking in relation to climate change mitigation.

Important Information

Past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of a fund and any income from it may go down as well as up and investors may get back less than they invested. Changes in rates of exchange may cause the value of investments to go up or down. Returns may increase or decrease as a result of currency fluctuations. This data is provided for information only and should not be reproduced, published or disseminated in any manner. Although Troy considers the data to be reliable, no warranty is given as to its accuracy or completeness. Any comparisons against indices are for illustrative purposes only. In line with the Fund’s prospectus, the Fund is authorised to invest in transferable securities and money market instruments issued or guaranteed by an EEA state, one or more local authorities, a third country, or a public international body to which one or more EEA states belong.  The Investment Manager would only consider investing more than 35% of the Fund’s assets in UK or US government issued transferable securities or approved money market instruments. 

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Please refer to Troy’s Glossary of Terms available here.

How to invest

Find more information on how to invest in this fund and where it is available.

How to invest

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