River and Mercantile will this week launch a European equity fund for new hire James Sym, offering an unconstrained approach, strong ESG credentials and a growing yield. 
The ES R&M European fund will hold between 30 and 50 stocks from the Europe excluding the UK region with no restrictions on sector weightings. It will launch on Wednesday 30 September.
Portfolio construction will be based on bottom-up stock selection, although Sym will be given the flexibility to make top-down calls when advantageous to investors – especially during turns in the business cycle
Sym joined River and Mercantile from Schroders earlier this year. At Schroders, he used a business-cycle approach that revolved identifying the best stocks for a given point in the economic cycle.
In addition, the fund will only hold companies that are making a positive contribution to their customers and society. It also aims to generate a sustainable yield, with the aim of growing the yield whenever appropriate from a business cycle perspective.
Sym says: “There is a great opportunity in Europe today. The region has gone through four massive crises in the last 10 years which has created many attractive investment opportunities. Additionally, we see Europe’s response to the pandemic as the genesis of a brighter future for the region.
“The strategy will offer investors a great chance to take part in a European stock market resurgence. It’s also very important to me that I can explain to my investors why they can be proud of investing in every single holding, and as such how they are contributing to positive change in society.”
Sym joined River and Mercantile in June this year, with the plan of launching a new suite of European focused funds. The manager spent almost 13 years at Schroders, where he ran the Schroder European Alpha Income and Schroder European Alpha Plus funds.