Around the World in Search of Growth
"We search for good businesses
with promising growth
prospects that trade at reasonable
valuations. Our goal is to
build a diversified, all-weather
portfolio that will perform well in
both up and down markets"
— Greg Dunn
Bottom-up, Fundamentals Driven
Managers enjoy true multi-cap flexibility: they’re able to buy many small- and mid-cap companies that other international growth funds cannot. International markets tend to be less efficient and news-driven, which favors this flexibility.
While value managers often start from a place of valuation and decide whether a company is a good business, we tend to start from a place of growth and ask:
- Is there a long-term growth opportunity?
- Is it a good business?
- Is the valuation reasonable?
What We Look For:
Attractive growth characteristics: A large addressable market, secular tailwinds, durable competitive advantages, and a high rate of growth with operational leverage.
Good businesses: High barriers to entry, quality management, durable competitive advantages, strong market share, high and sustainable margins.
Reasonable valuation: We consider growth prospects, business models, and historical valuation ranges, as well as conduct peer valuation comparisons and look at investor sentiment.
Thornburg’s Three-Basket Construct
Exposure to each basket is roughly equal to provide optimal diversification balance:
Consistent growth companies exhibit steady earnings and revenue growth; these companies often have subscription or other recurring revenue profiles.
Growth industry leaders often have leadership positions in growing markets, sometimes with dominant market share, and tend to be larger and more established.
Emerging growth companies are typically growing rapidly, often carving out a niche in an existing market. They tend to be smaller, earlier-stage companies. We expect these companies to generate high returns over time, but with higher volatility.
Distinguishing Characteristics
Flexibility: The fund operates under a flexible mandate, allowing us to pursue many different types of growth stocks in many different areas.
Risk Management
From initial fundamental research, through the continuous monitoring of our investment thesis, to ongoing evaluation of business developments, we know what we own and why we own it. We diversify through Thornburg’s proprietary basket construct, industry and sector representation, position size, market cap, and through monitoring stock-specific risks. A core component of our risk-management process is maintaining a consistently executed sell discipline. We tend to be fast to sell a holding when a crack appears in the investment thesis.