AstraZeneca

Under the leadership of Chief Executive Pascal Soirot, Astra Zeneca has transformed itself over the past decade from facing significant patent cliffs across its major products to becoming one of the fastest growing healthcare companies globally. This has been powered by a focus on innovation that has delivered a world leading position in oncology treatments, pioneering radical improvements in the standard of care for a number of cancers. Alongside this leading position in oncology, the company has strong capabilities in cardiovascular and respiratory treatments and, through the recent acquisition of Alexion, it has expanded into rare disease outcomes. The Investment Manager expects the company to continue to be at the forefront of innovation and to drive financial success through continued breakthroughs in the impact of the treatments it can offer its patients. This should lead it to be able to sustainably drive high levels of revenue growth over many years and increasingly translate that into cash flow and ultimately into dividends back to investors. The increase in the dividend this year was the first in a decade and the Investment Manager expects that trend towards dividend growth to continue, while from a capital perspective the Investment Manager considers the valuation of the business to be relatively modest for the prospects that it has.