Swiss equities: Home to high quality growth leaders

Swiss companies are well known for its long record of stability and strong governance. Switzerland is home to some of the best known brands in the world, and its biggest names are global leaders across many sectors, including pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, wealth management, insurance and industrials.  Given their high-quality nature, Swiss companies stand out in terms of key financial metrics such as earnings growth, profit margins, return on invested capital / return on equity and free cash flow generation, driving long-term outperformance.

Swiss companies are leading in innovation and competitiveness	Quality and innovation drive superior financial metrics:  Dividend yields and ROE are key drivers of Swiss stocks	Long-term outperformance
Switzerland ranks #1 in global competitiveness1 and in terms of innovation2, making many Swiss companies global leaders in various industries and niches. For this reason, they have generally outperformed many comparable European and global counterparts in the past.	Swiss equities have one of the highest excess dividend yields and returns on invested capital (ROIC) globally.3	Swiss equities have outperformed global equities over the last 20 years. In particular Swiss small & mid caps have outperformed the MSCI world strongly over the last 20 years despite a lower realized annual volatility.4

Sources:

¹ World Economic Forum competitiveness report 2019
² European Innovation Scoreboard 2020
³ Exceed dividend yields based on premium over 10-year government bond yield.  
⁴ Cumulative returns since 2000 vs MSCI World Index.  

Sustainability at the heart of investment philosophy.

Strong ESG Solutions and Sustainable Investment Research, Strategy & Stewardship teams. The Swiss equities team leverages the expertise in terms of stewardship/engagement and makes use of proprietary ESG tools (ESG company analyzer). 

Why invest ?

High conviction investment approach:  Bottom-up fundamental research

Our bottom-up investment approach and stock selection capabilities are based on comprehensive fundamental research. We aim to identify high-quality market leaders with clear competitive advantages, proven management and above-average growth prospects.

We have our ears on the ground: The core teams holds over 300 company/management meetings per annum to stay close to investment opportunities.

Basis of our analysis

In our top down analysis of sectors and regions, we seek to identify business models that have resilience through the cycle and have sustainable above-average growth potential by catering to long-term structural mega trends.

Financial models
Using rigorous fundamental analysis, we look for companies that are strong stewards of capital, i.e.  that exhibit strong capital efficiency, strong cash generation and limited dependency on external capital.

Business practices
We look at ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors, seeking to avoid unethical businesses, poor corporate practices, and serious controversies.

Business model
In our top-down analysis of sectors and regions, we look at the implications of long-term structural trends. This helps us shape the portfolio’s overall thematic exposure globally.

No cutting corners.  We want to invest in companies with staying power over the medium- to long-term.  We analyse a company's sustainability through looking for good stewards of capital, conscientious behaviour and strategic vision that will carry them beyond the remits of a single economic cycle.  

Investment team.

	Johan Utterman Portfolio Manager
	Fabian Wiederin   Co-Portfolio Manager
	Nicola Jäggi Equity Analyst

The team has a global perspective on stocks, having professional fund management experience as investors in global stocks, establishing a valuable network of investor contacts.  A global view helps on single stocks as well as on tactical allocation. In addition, our in-house roster of global sector research analysts provides valuable cross-reads to Swiss stocks from US, European and Asian comparable companies. 

The portfolio management team has specialized domain expertise in the healthcare, financial services, industrials sectors. Those sectors require specialist knowledge, are complex and feature prominently in Swiss small & mid cap indices. Healthcare, financial services and industrials account for close 60% of the SPI Extra weights.