Stewart Investors

We invite you to explore our review of Stewart Investors’ investment activities in 2024.
Our investment philosophy is to invest over the long term in high-quality companies that contribute to, and benefit from, sustainable development.

Emerging markets (EM) offer growth, diversification, and significant impact potential, but investors need to know how to manage data scarcity, market volatility, and weaker corporate governance. This is especially true for sustainable investors who want to invest in the right companies and countries. A stable approach is key to achieving impact and returns in sustainable EM equity.

We believe trust is the outcome of competence and integrity. When we invest on behalf of our clients, who entrust us with their savings, we strive to embody both qualities. These qualities also guide our analysis of companies and their management teams.

Investing in Global Emerging Markets (GEM) is never simple. Looking back through 2024, not many people would have foreseen an attempted coup in South Korea, to name just one event that sparked some head scratching amongst even the most weather beaten and experienced of GEM investors.

We believe the quality of people behind a business has the greatest bearing on its long-term success or failure. Read examples of our portfolio holdings across a range of ownership models, all with exceptional cultures, and also where we’ve made mistakes.

We are often asked how we narrow down a universe of approximately 18,000 [1] Asian and Emerging Markets companies to a portfolio of roughly 50. It’s a good question, and since we invest globally too, giving us an investible universe of approximately 70,000 [1] companies, the challenge is even starker.

We often introduce ourselves to prospective clients, friends and strangers as “good old-fashioned, long-term investors”. In an environment where returns are counted by the day, there is a tendency to equate this approach with being stuck in the past and out of touch with the future. Let’s challenge this perception.

We believe companies that deliver benefits to society and the environment face fewer risks over the long term and are therefore better placed to deliver positive returns to shareholders.