On June 18, 2025, Stewart Investors, an active, long-only global equity specialist with $16.5 billion in assets under management, launched the Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders fund (SWWLX) with an initial investment from a U.S. foundation. SWWLX is the firm’s first fund available to regular US investors.
Stewart is Edinburgh-based and describes themselves this way: “We are a small team of passionate investors managing, on behalf of our clients, investment portfolios with a focus on high-quality companies that are well positioned to contribute to, and benefit from, sustainable development.”
In line with that, the Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders Fund invests in quality companies that are well-positioned to contribute to, and benefit from, sustainable development. SWWLX is actively managed, benchmark agnostic, and concentrated, and will typically hold 30 to 60 companies with free float market capitalizations of at least $5 billion. The fund invests in equity securities in both developed and emerging markets.
Managers Sashi Reddy joined the firm’s investment team in 2007, while David Gait joined in 1997. Mr. Reddy, whose non-US fund has a beta of 0.79, makes a familiar and sensible argument: “Quality businesses shine when the top-down macro environment becomes more challenging, as is the case today. Companies with strong cultures and sound franchises manage uncertainty, volatility, and complexity better than most, and we continue to find these businesses, buy them at reasonable prices, and remain patient investors.”
The U.S. fund is similar to the Worldwide Leaders strategy available to non-U.S. investors since November 2013. Morningstar UK’s team ranks that strategy as one of the five best options for navigating chaotic times:
Stewart Investors Worldwide Leaders Sustainability has a unique process, with strong credentials in sustainable investing, and a focus on high-quality, lower-risk stocks, making it a dependable option in down markets.
The strategy targets companies that can contribute to sustainable human development, with the lowest ecological impact. Although the team places much emphasis on sustainability and stewardship, this isn’t a pure environmental, social, and governance fund. The team looks for durable franchises with high-quality management that is well aligned with shareholders. The process is genuinely long-term and patient, resulting in relatively low turnover. It leads to a portfolio that looks very different to the benchmark. The strategy has a growth bias with overweightings in the technology and healthcare sectors. (Mathieu Caquineau, “Five Global Equity Funds to Survive Market Volatility,” 10/23/2024)
It is, by their rating, a four-star fund.
Good news: it’s cheap for a concentrated active fund, with expenses capped at 0.60%. Bad news: they are launching an institutional share class ($1 million minimum initially) with “more share classes for retail investors in the short term.”
