Aryestis Vlahakis

Baillie Gifford & Co. is an independent, global investment management firm headquartered in Edinburgh, UK. The firm was founded in 1908 and is wholly-owned by their partners. Baillie Gifford manages assets for pension funds, institutions, corporates, foundations, charities and retail investors. They are a socially responsible investor which works with their fund managers to assess ESG concerns both before and after investing in companies.

Sanlam Investment Management (Pty) Ltd. (SIM) is the asset management subsidiary of Sanlam Life Insurance Ltd., which in turn owned by Sanlam Ltd. (JSE: SLM, OTCMKTS: SLLDY) in South Africa. Headquartered in Bellville, the firm offers a wide range of investment and financial planning solutions and a comprehensive range of local and offshore investment products to end investors, financial planners and institutions. SIM is a signatory to both the Code for Responsible Investing in South Africa (CRISA) and its forerunner, the United Nations-backed Principles of Responsible Investing (UNPRI).

SAFE Investment Co. Ltd. (SAFEIC) is the Hong Kong-based investment management subsidiary of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), an administration agency headquartered in China. Founded in 1997, SAFEIC is the Hong Kong branch of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund, which serves primarily as a foreign currency reserve. Officials from the SAFE serve on the firm’s Board of Directors.

Denker Capital (Pty) Ltd. (Denker Capital) is an independent South African asset management firm which was established in 2015 when Sanlam Investments boutiques SIM Unconstrained Capital Partners and SIM Global merged. Denker Capital is based in Cape Town and specializes in local and offshore investments.

2Xideas AG (Research Firm) (2Xideas-Research) is the investment research division of 2Xideas AG, an independent, partner-owned investment firm headquartered in Küsnacht, Switzerland. The firm was founded by Dr. Roger Meister and Thomas Schwarzenbach in 2013. 2Xideas-Research conducts deep-dive research on global investment universe which consists of 4,000 liquid mid to large-cap companies. They employ conventional screening and machine-learning techniques on their proprietary technology platform to select their research targets on which they perform fundamental analysis. Their primary research approach includes frequent management meetings to build knowledge on the long-term viability of their research targets' business models. The firm aims to identify high-quality mid cap companies with 2X return potential over 5 to 7 years, equivalent to a 10-15% return per annum.