Our Investment Approach

Be Boring. Make Money.™

Be Boring. Make Money.™ means ignoring fads and taking a long-term view of investing. It means sticking to a disciplined, bottom-up investment approach no matter the market outlook. And, it means putting the investment odds in our clients’ favour by focusing on the things we can control.

In other words, we are benchmark agnostic, think probabilistically, and embrace uncertainty.

We seek business models with sustainable competitive advantages, regardless of industry or economic conditions.

We believe that by consistently following our investment philosophy and process we can provide investors with above average, long-term, risk-adjusted returns.

Because we adhere to a single, well-defined investment philosophy and process, our efforts are focused. This shared common language better enables the exchange of information and ideas—enhancing decision-making, increasing resilience, and reducing risk.

Wealth-Creating Companies

We look for companies that create wealth—companies that earn a return on capital greater than their cost of capital over time by virtue of a sustainable competitive advantage.

Excellent Management Teams

An excellent management team effectively allocates capital while expanding the company’s competitive advantage. In addition, these teams are consistent: they have a track record of doing what they say they are going to do.

Discount to Intrinsic Value

We seek to find quality companies that are trading at a discount to their intrinsic value—the price an objective, well-informed, person would pay for the company. This turns a great company into a great investment.

Yield Curve Strategy

We position the portfolio along the points on yield curve which offer the most attractive yields relative to the duration of the security, maintaining a bias for the part of the curve that offers attractive carry characteristics in the context of central bank policy.

Sector Allocation

We typically overweight those sectors that provide attractive yields relative to Government of Canada bonds. That is, we generally emphasize investment grade corporate, provincial, and municipal bonds.

Security Selection

We actively seek attractively priced securities using in-house bottom up credit analysis. Managing credit risk is integral to our style as we seek opportunities to pick up yield through security selection without sacrificing credit quality.

Trading

We monitor bond markets in an effort to identify and exploit mispriced securities. In addition to our own research team, we cultivate strong dealer relationships in order to generate investment ideas and effectively execute on them.

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Responsible Investing

The firm’s approach to responsible investing is to incorporate material environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into our investment decisions to better manage risk and generate sustainable, long-term returns. 

Mawer is a signatory of the internationally-recognized Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

Responsible Investing Policy

Responsible Investing Report