Investment Policy

Investment Objective

Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust Plc is a high conviction long-only equity investment trust. The investment objective of the Company is to achieve long-term capital appreciation through investment in securities which derive the majority of the economic values, revenues, profits, or cost base from Global Emerging Markets.

Investment Objective

Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust plc (“the Company”) is a high conviction long-only equity investment trust.
The investment objective of the Company is to achieve long-term capital appreciation, mainly through investment in securities listed in India and listed securities of companies with a significant presence in India.

Summary of Investment Policy

The Company shall invest primarily in equities and equity-related securities (including ordinary shares, preference shares, convertible unsecured loan stock, rights, warrants and other similar securities) admitted to trading on any stock exchange that provide exposure to companies that are domiciled in global emerging markets, or that are domiciled in developed markets but, at the time of investment, derive a majority of their economic value, revenues or profits from, or whose assets or cost base are mainly located in, global emerging markets.
The Company will access the Investment Adviser’s investment approach that targets well-managed, scalable businesses with superior returns on incremental capital at attractive valuations, as determined through its OpcoFinco^TM valuation framework.
This framework provides AWEM with a unique and differentiated method of valuation which has been tried and tested in the Ashoka India Equity Trust, which has considerably outperformed its reference benchmark since inception.
The team has also developed and adopted its internal ESG framework ABLEx^TM (Assessment of Business Longevity and Excellence for ESG risk assessment and scoring). The framework consists of sector specific ESG risks and opportunities against which a company’s practices are assessed and rated.

In pursuance of its objective, the Company also abides by following rules:

01.

Invest no more than 50% of Gross Assets in companies that are domiciled in, or derive a majority of their economic value, revenues or profits from a single emerging market jurisdiction.

02.

Invest no more than 40% of Gross Assets in any single sector.

03.

Invest no more than 15% of Gross Assets in any single holding or securities of any one issuer.

04.

Investment in unlisted securities of any one issuer will be limited to 5% of Gross Assets.

05.

Investment in unlisted securities of any one issuer will be limited to 10% of Gross Assets.

06.

No more than 15% of their Gross Assets in other listed investment companies or investment trusts.

07.

The Company may deploy gearing, which will not exceed 25% of NAV.

08.

The Company may invest up to 10% of Gross Assets in Companies domiciled in Frontier and Developed Markets that derive a majority of their economic value, revenues, profits, assets or cost base from Global Emerging Markets.

This is the summary of the Company’s investment policy. For the full investment policy please refer to our Prospectus

For a full set of risk factors relating to an investment in the company, please refer to the latest Prospectus

Principal Risks Relating to Emerging Market Investments

The Company will invest in securities that provide exposure to Emerging Markets and may also invest in securities that provide exposure to Frontier Markets. Investments in such markets may include a higher element of risk compared to Developed Markets and the value of the Company’s investments may be adversely affected by potential political and social uncertainties in those jurisdictions. Certain developments are beyond the control of the Company, such as the possibility of nationalisation, expropriations, confiscatory taxation, political changes and instability, government regulation, social and civil unrest, pandemic outbreaks, diplomatic disputes or other similar developments, could adversely affect the Company’s investments. In addition, the securities of issuers based in Emerging Markets or Frontier Markets may carry the risks of less publicly available and less reliable information, lower liquidity, significantly more volatile markets and temporary trading suspensions, less strict securities markets and other financial regulation, less favourable tax provisions, settlements being slower and subject to greater risk of failure, intermediaries being less experienced or technologically equipped, as well as custodians not offering the level of service, administration and safe-keeping that is customary in Developed Markets. In addition, many of the fundamental laws in certain Emerging Market and Frontier Market countries have only recently come into force, which increases the risk of ambiguity and inconsistency in their application, interpretation, and enforcement.

There is no guarantee that objectives will be met. The portfolio risk management process includes an effort to monitor and manage risk but does not imply low risk. This is an actively managed Trust that is not designed to track its reference benchmark. Therefore, the performance of the Trust and the performance of its reference benchmark may diverge. In addition, stated reference benchmark returns do not reflect any management or other charges to the Trust, whereas stated returns of the Trust do.