Cusana Capital is a partner-owned boutique asset manager with a specialist focus on emerging market equities.
Founded in 2022
Strategies
Emerging Markets Equities
Global Emerging Markets Strategy investing in a concentrated portfolio of high quality companies, with the aim of achieving long term capital appreciation. The strategy provides access to significant growth potential while effectively managing the risks associated with emerging markets. It is managed by a highly experienced team of emerging markets specialists.
About Cusana Capital Asset Management
About Cusana Capital Asset Management
Cusana Capital is a partner-owned, independent emerging market equities focused business established in the UK in 2022 by Robert Marshall-Lee and Jos Trusted. The firm focuses on managing a concentrated global emerging market equity strategy through two funds: an Irish Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) and an Irish UCITS fund. With a high conviction, long-only approach, Cusana Capital aims to provide clients with access to some of the most exciting capital growth opportunities outside of developed countries.
The investment strategy is benchmark agnostic and centres on long-term investments in companies exhibiting superior corporate governance, strong cash conversion, robust balance sheets, and market-leading products and services. The firm’s approach, known as the “Sword and Shield,” is designed to offer significant capital growth opportunities while aiming to shield investors from typical emerging market risks.
Cusana Capital's founders bring extensive experience in emerging markets investing. Robert Marshall-Lee previously led the emerging markets franchise at BNYM Newton, where he managed assets of approximately $3.5 billion and achieved top percentile performance*. The firm has partnered with Sector Asset Management (Norway) to provide middle and back-office support.
Cusana Capital is committed to delivering exceptional long-term performance and maintaining a strong alignment of interests with its clients.
- Independent, partner-owned asset manager based in London
- Experienced team of emerging market specialist fund managers
- Assets under management of $340m (31-Jan-2025)
Committed to ESG
Committed to ESG
UNIFIED THINKING
The sustainability of each company is integral to our assessment of value as long-term investors. We therefore place at least equal emphasis on ESG considerations as we do financial metrics. Indeed, a thorough analysis of one cannot exist without a solid understanding of the other. Cusana exercises judgment and experience to ensure that the portfolio’s investee businesses are run in the interests of all shareholders. We seek to invest in good corporate citizens that contribute to the societies in which they exist.
ESG PROCESS
Whilst implicitly at the heart of most of what we do at Cusana, ESG is explicitly integrated into the Cusana investment process at several stages. First, Cusana excludes businesses which derive any more than the following proportion of revenues from: adult entertainment (5%); armaments (10%); gambling (10%); tobacco (10%); thermal coal (30%). More significantly, all existing and prospective holdings in the Cusana portfolio are assessed against a detailed investment checklist, several sections of which relate to ESG factors. From this checklist, the investment team highlight the three-to-five most material factors as relates to the investment thesis under consideration. Frequently, we find that corporate governance factors are identified as one of these more material considerations.
PRINCIPLES-BASED
We believe that a principles-based approach enables Cusana to better assess highly complex issues for which available data may be inadequate or even misleading. Principles aid our judgment, so that we do not become lost in well-meaning but misguided quantification. Our principles guide us to invest in a manner that prioritises ESG in substance, rather than being lost in a process of metric computation, false precision and box-ticking.
ENGAGEMENT
The investment industry is key to driving behavioural change, as it can direct the flow of capital to good actors and conversely divert it away from the bad actors. We will therefore actively engage with our investee companies where we perceive their activities or failure to consider fully the impact of sustainability as a risk to shareholder value. Engagement is therefore a fundamental part of the Cusana process, normally undertaken through correspondence or, if necessary, company meetings.
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