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The Investment Objective of the Scheme as a whole is to grow the long term value of members’ capital within guidelines chosen by members. The Growth Fund will attempt to more aggressively grow members’ capital by primarily investing in a hand-picked portfolio of quality, growing companies. The Conservative Fund offers a more defensive portfolio through investing in a mix of asset classes including cash, fixed interest, property and infrastructure securities.

 

The Growth Fund focuses its investments in the shares of successful growing New Zealand, Australian and other International companies that have the potential for substantial business growth. Our approach is all about gaining an information advantage.  Many New Zealand, Australian and international companies are world class in product but remain largely "undiscovered" by the world's investing community, partly because they are focused on the doing than the telling.  Such companies are often too small to be noticed by larger investors and can remain undervalued in spite of achieving real earnings growth.  Fisher Funds' objective is to identify overlooked, growing companies that have the ability to grow their profits over a three - five year period.  If we buy and hold such companies, we know that their share prices will ultimately follow.

 

It is not our intention to buy shares in new or unproven companies, nor do we look for bargain stocks. We look for quality. Once we buy shares in a company, we generally hold them for the long term, unless the fundamental reason for buying no longer exists. After all, if you find a great business, why would you not want to hold on to that business forever?  We are mindful of price, and we seek to avoid overpaying for growth.  But we are careful not to sell at the first sign of success, only to miss years of subsequent performance.

 

We are close to all our Portfolio companies, visit them regularly and get to know the management teams well. Before investing we like to meet the management and we pride ourselves on the relationships that we have established with the management teams of many successful businesses.

 

We are stock pickers who invest in companies on the basis of their individual merits. The company that we like the most will have the largest position in the Fund. Our portfolios are concentrated, typically having between 10 and 20 stocks in each of New Zealand and Australia at one time and 30 to 40 internationally. We do not want too many holdings, diluting our efforts and knowledge, but we want enough to reduce the risk if something goes wrong. We believe there will always be companies that will do well, irrespective of the economy or market environment. We are constantly searching for these businesses.

 

We have the ability to invest in both listed and unlisted companies. However you can generally expect that at least 90% (by value) of the Growth Fund portfolio will be investments in listed companies. Although we like the idea of buying an unlisted company at a relatively low price, we are mindful that the listed environment gives us greater protection and ensures that we get regular information about each company.

 

Our investments favour smaller, growing companies. However if a company grows to become a large company, we will maintain a holding as long as it remains an attractive investment. If we find a company that otherwise meets all our criteria, we will not exclude it from the Portfolio based on size.

 

The Conservative Fund’s goal is to achieve returns better than bank term deposits over the long term. Its focus is on preserving your capital and protecting the purchasing power of your investments against inflation. The Conservative Fund may invest in cash, fixed interest, shares, infrastructure securities and property securities locally or internationally. The amount invested in each asset class will change when we think one asset class might be better than another. However, generally you can expect around 80% (by value) of the Conservative Fund portfolio to be invested in “income” assets such as cash and fixed interest, with around 20% invested in growth assets such as shares, infrastructure and property.

 

We employ a proprietary investment analysis model that we call the STEEPP process to analyse existing and new portfolio companies. This analysis gives each company a score against a number of criteria that we believe need to exist in a successful portfolio company. Every company gets a score out of five for each of the following criteria and companies are ranked according to their overall score.