Status under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)

Legal Entity Identifier: 5493002MVUQOZF2KCA11

A. Summary

The Fund is categorised as one which meets the provisions set out in Article 8 of SFDR as a product which promotes environmental and/or social characteristics and invests in companies with good governance practices. Whilst the Fund does not have as its objective a sustainable investment, it will have a minimum proportion of 10% of sustainable investments with a social objective and an environmental objective in economic activities that do not qualify as environmentally sustainable under the EU Taxonomy.

The Fund promotes support for the UN Global Compact principles (which cover matters including human rights, labour, corruption, and environmental pollution) and avoids issuers with the worst ESG risk ratings. In addition, the Fund invests a minimum of 10% of its net asset value in sustainable investments. The Fund does not use a reference benchmark to attain its environmental or social characteristics.

This Fund seeks long-term growth of capital by investing at least 80% of its net asset value in equities (also known as company shares) located anywhere in the world and selected for their growth potential and which the relevant Sub-Investment Adviser believes have a life sciences orientation. Generally speaking, the “life sciences” relate to maintaining or improving quality of life.

The Fund is Actively Managed with reference to the MSCI World Health Care Index, which is broadly representative of the companies in which it may invest. The Sub-Investment Adviser generally takes a “bottom-up” approach to building portfolios. The Fund follows an investment strategy in which companies are considered principally on their own fundamental qualitative and quantitative characteristics. This approach rests on a belief that some companies have inherent strengths for creating shareholder value over time, have superior prospects to their peer groups and should therefore outperform even in challenging industry and economic circumstances. The purpose of a fundamental investment approach is to identify and invest in such companies.

Investors should read this section in conjunction with the Fund’s investment strategy (as set out in the supplement for the Fund under the heading “Investment Objective and Policies”).

The binding elements of the investment strategy described below are implemented as exclusionary screens on covered securities, which are coded into the compliance module of the Sub-Investment Adviser’s order management system utilising third-party data provider(s) on an ongoing basis.

The exclusionary screens are implemented on both a pre and post trade basis enabling the sub investment advisor to block any proposed transactions in an excluded security and identify any changes to the status of holdings when third-party data is periodically updated.

The Sub-Investment Adviser uses specific screens to help achieve some of the promoted characteristics. For example- the Sub-Investment Adviser applies screens based on third party data and/or internal research to exclude companies if they are deemed to have failed to comply with the UN Global Compact Principles (which cover matters including human rights, labour, corruption, and environmental pollution).

The Sub-Investment Adviser applies screens to ensure at least 80% of the portfolio is invested in companies with an ESG risk rating of BB or higher (by MSCI – https://www.msci.com/, or equivalent).

Further, The Sub-Investment Adviser uses a pass/fail test meaning that each sustainable investment must meet all three of the requirements below:

1. it positively contributes to an environmental or social objective;
2. it does not cause significant harm to any environmental or social sustainable investment objective; and it follows good governance practices.

The Fund also applies the Firmwide Exclusions Policy (see “Firmwide Exclusions” in the "JHI Responsible Investment Policy”), which includes controversial weapons.

For the purposes of the AMF doctrine, the extra-financial analysis or rating is higher than:

1. 90% for equities issued by large capitalisation companies whose registered office is located in "developed" countries, debt securities and money market instruments with an investment grade credit rating, sovereign debt issued by developed countries;
2. 75% for equities issued by large capitalisations whose registered office is located in "emerging" countries, equities issued by small and medium capitalisations, debt securities and money market instruments with a high yield credit rating and sovereign debt issued by "emerging" countries.

The Sub-Investment Adviser may include positions in the Fund that, based on third-party data or screens, appear to fail the above criteria, where the Sub-Investment Adviser believes that the third- party data may be insufficient or inaccurate.

JHI has chosen MSCI’s as its primary data source for ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) research.

Where coverage gaps are identified, specialist ESG Data vendors or inhouse research may be used to complement the ESG research. This ensures helps ensure that consistent data and methodologies are used given an ESG measure per security type and hence can be compared correctly in the portfolio construction process.

The ESG Investment Policy,sets out the firmwide approach to ESG Integration Principles, including JHI’s Responsible Investment Principles for long-term investment success, our approaches to Stewardship and Engagement and Baseline Exclusions applied to investee companies.