Important Legal Information
Intended Audience
This Site is primarily directed at persons in the United Kingdom. The products and services mentioned on this Site are subject to legal and regulatory requirements in various jurisdictions and may not be available in all jurisdictions. The information in this Site does not constitute an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any investments or to engage in any investment activity in any jurisdiction where such activity would be contrary to local law or regulation. Persons in jurisdictions where these activities are restricted or prohibited must not access or use this Site. It is your responsibility to be aware of and comply with any relevant laws or regulations applicable in your jurisdiction.
Website Contents and Changes to Information
Whilst FBS FUND ScSp has taken all reasonable care to ensure that information on this Site is accurate and complete at the date of its publication, FBS FUND ScSp cannot guarantee the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of such information. The information contained on this Site is subject to change at any time, without notice. The views expressed in this Site are the opinions of FBS FUND ScSp and such opinions are subject to change without notice.
Website Access and Availability
Access to this Site is permitted for guests and registered users on a temporary basis.
FBS FUND ScSp reserves the right to withdraw or amend the service provided by the Site at any time. FBS FUND ScSp does not accept responsibility as to the operation, functionality or availability of this Site, or warrant that the use of the Site will be free from delay, interruption, interception or error.
FBS FUND ScSp may restrict access to some parts of the Site to users who are registered users. If you are a registered user and you choose or are provided with a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of FBS FUND ScSp’s security procedures you must treat such information as confidential and you should not disclose it to any third party. FBS FUND ScSp reserves the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated to you by FBS FUND ScSp, at any time if necessary to protect the security of the Site or if you fail to comply with the provisions of this Legal Notice.
You must not misuse this Site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorized access to this Site, the server on which the Site is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to this Site. You must not attack this Site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial of service attack. FBS FUND ScSp may report any breach of this provision to the relevant authorities and may cooperate with them in any investigation, including by disclosing your identity.
FBS FUND ScSp will take reasonable precautions to ensure the security of this Site. However, FBS FUND ScSp will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial of service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other material due to your use of this Site or to your downloading material posted on it.
Information about Fundsmith Equity Fund
You may obtain copies of the Prospectus, KIID and the Annual and Interim Report and Accounts for the FBS FUND ScSp (the “Fund”) free of charge by contacting us at FBS FUND ScSp, PO Box 10846, Chelmsford, Essex, CM992BW or these can be downloaded directly from this Site.
FBS FUND ScSp does not provide financial, investment, tax or other advice. If you are unsure as to whether an investment in the Fund is suitable for you, you should seek your own professional advice.
Risk Warnings
It should not be assumed that an investment into the Fund will be profitable. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. The value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise, may be affected by changes in rates of exchange, and you may not get back the amount of your original investment.
Material Interests
FBS FUND ScSp and its connected persons do hold investments in the Fund.
Data Protection and Privacy
Your Personal Information: FBS FUND ScSp is committed to protecting the confidentiality and security of your personal information in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 as amended. Please refer to the detailed information in our data protection policy contained in the ‘privacy’ link at the bottom of each page on this site. However, the Internet is not a secure medium and whilst FBS FUND ScSp takes reasonable precautions to protect any personal information transmitted through this Site, it does not guarantee or warrant the security of such personal information. FBS FUND ScSp does not accept any responsibility for unauthorized access by a third party or the corruption of data sent to it.
Intellectual Property Rights
FBS FUND ScSp is the owner, or the licensee of all intellectual property rights contained within this Site and in the material published on it. These works are protected by copyright laws. All such rights are reserved.
You may download or print out a hard copy of pages from this Site or the material made available on it for your personal reference. However, you must not make any copy of the material on this Site for public or commercial use without FBS FUND ScSp’s prior written consent. You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way.
FBS FUND ScSp is the registered trademark of FBS FUND ScSp.
Linking to this Site
You may link to the Home Page of this Site, if you do so in a way which is fair, legal and does not damage FBS FUND ScSp’s reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on FBS FUND ScSp’s part where none exists. You must not establish a link from a website that is not owned by you. This Site must not be framed on any other Site, nor may you create a link to any part of this Site other than the Home Page.
Links from this Site
Where this Site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. FBS FUND ScSp has no control over the contents of these sites or resources and accepts no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise to you from your use of them.
Termination
FBS FUND ScSp has the right to terminate your access to this Site at any time on giving notice to you and in any event if you commit any breach of these terms and conditions. FBS FUND ScSp shall have no liability to you for such termination. If your access to this Site is terminated, the remaining provisions of this Legal Notice will continue to apply.
Limitation of Liability
Save as provided below, neither FBS FUND ScSp, any of its members, officers or employees, nor any third party vendor, will be liable or have any responsibility of any kind for any loss or damage that you incur in the event of any failure or interruption of this Site, or resulting from the act or omission of any other party involved in making this Site or the data contained in it available to you, or from any other cause relating to your access to, inability to access, or use of the Site or the materials contained on this Site whether or not the circumstances giving rise to such cause may have been within the control of FBS FUND ScSp, or of any vendor providing software or services support. Nothing in this Legal Notice excludes or restricts any duty or liability that FBS FUND ScSp has under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (as amended from time to time), the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority or any other applicable law or regulation. Nothing in this Legal Notice shall restrict or exclude any liability that FBS FUND ScSp has to any party that cannot be excluded by law.
Indemnity
You shall indemnify FBS FUND ScSp from and against all actions, claims, proceedings, costs and damages (including any damages or compensation paid by us on the advice of our legal advisors to compromise or settle any claim) and all legal costs or expenses arising out of your use of the Site and any breach by you of any terms and conditions contained in this Legal Notice.
Amendments to these Terms
FBS FUND ScSp may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this Legal Notice. You are expected to check this Legal Notice from time to time to take note of any changes to these terms.
Governing Law & Other Legal Provisions
These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England without regard to conflicts of law principles. The English courts will have the exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from or related to this Site. No failure of either party to enforce any of its rights under this Legal Notice will act as a waiver of such rights. If any portion of any provision of this Legal Notice is found invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent possible, and the remaining provisions of this Legal Notice shall remain in full force and effect.
Stewardship Code Notice
Under COBS Rule 2.2.3R of the FCA’s Conduct of Business Sourcebook, FBS FUND ScSp is required to include on this website a disclosure about the nature of its commitment to the UK Financial Reporting Council’s Stewardship Code (the “Code”) or, where it does not commit to the Code, its alternative investment strategy. The Code is a voluntary code and sets out several principles relating to engagement by investors with UK equity issuers. Below we highlight our commitment to the Code, a full statement of principles is available on request.
F FBS FUND ScSp considers itself to have an important fiduciary duty to protect the interests of investors. Part of our role as an investment manager is to engage with investee companies to satisfy ourselves that they are acting in the best interests of shareholders. We believe that shareholder engagement can help to support good corporate governance. This is important not only because it advocates shareholder interests directly, but also because of the wider benefits it can have from an economic, social and environmental perspective. Therefore, we seek to establish a dialogue with investee companies so that we can share our objectives and expectations in an open and transparent manner. We hope that, by doing so, important decisions at our investee companies will always be made with shareholders’ interests in mind. The need to engage with investee companies is particularly important to us, given our long-term approach to investing. Once we buy a stock, we hope to hold it indefinitely. Because of this, we want to make sure that the companies we invest in are run on a sustainable basis. Our primary concern is to ensure that the company continues to allocate capital in a manner which creates value for shareholders. We are also concerned with the structure of management remuneration. We encourage our investee companies to reward management in a way which promotes long term, sustainable growth, and which ensures that the interests of management are aligned with the interests of shareholders. It is important to note that, although we engage with all investee companies and vote on all corporate governance issues, we are not an ‘activist’ shareholder. In other words, we do not seek to effect disruptive change. Our strategy is to invest in good companies. If we thought that significant change was required for a company to deliver a good return, we wouldn’t invest in the first place. It should also be noted that we are subject to strict regulatory and contractual limitations which prevent us from exerting a significant influence on the companies in which we invest. Therefore, we will only ever be a minority shareholder.