Seeking diversified exposure to international small cap companies

The Fund invests primarily in common stocks of companies with smaller market capitalizations located in developed and emerging markets outside the US. The Fund normally invests at least 80% of its total assets in equity securities of companies with smaller market capitalizations. Smaller market capitalization companies are companies with market capitalizations that do not exceed the highest market capitalization of a company within the Fund’s benchmark, the MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap Index (Gross), at the time of purchase. Some of these companies, although small by US standards, might be large companies in their local markets. The Fund may continue to hold securities of a portfolio company that appreciate above the smaller market capitalization threshold and thus may from time to time hold less than 80% of its total assets in equity securities of companies with smaller market capitalizations. The Fund may invest in a wide range of industries. The Fund’s investment objective is to seek long-term growth of capital.

YTD Return*
+26.89%
Nav*
$17.13, -0.19
Inception
October 20, 2014
Cusip
14949P703
Benchmark
MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap
Minimum Investment
$1,000,000
Sales Charge
None
Gross Expense Ratio
1.21%
Net Expense Ratio
1.10%
*As of November 13, 2025
**Contractual fee waivers are in effect until 1/31/2026.

Strategy overview

The portfolio managers discuss our International Small Cap strategy.

Portfolio managers

Quantitative Portfolio Manager
Head of Quantitative Research
Quantitative Portfolio Manager
Quantitative Portfolio Manager
Quantitative Portfolio Manager

Performance

Table Header QTD YTD 1 year3 years5 years10 years Since inception
Fund -0.4%26.8%25.3%25.4%17.2%9.8%9.6%
MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap 0.2%25.8%22.6%18.2%10.6%7.8%7.4%
Table Header QTD YTD 1 year3 years5 years10 years Since inception
Fund -0.4%26.8%25.3%25.4%17.2%9.8%9.6%
MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap 0.2%25.8%22.6%18.2%10.6%7.8%7.4%
Table Header QTD YTD 1 year3 years5 years10 years Since inception
Fund 4.8%27.3%21.5%27.1%16.7%10.5%9.7%
MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap 6.7%25.5%15.9%19.4%10.0%8.4%7.5%
Table Header QTD YTD 1 year3 years5 years10 years Since inception
Fund 4.8%27.3%21.5%27.1%16.7%10.5%9.7%
MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap 6.7%25.5%15.9%19.4%10.0%8.4%7.5%
Table Header 2024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Fund 10.0%27.2%-11.3%21.6%2.7%18.8%-21.1%34.7%3.3%4.7%
MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap 3.4%15.7%-20.0%12.9%14.2%22.4%-18.2%31.6%3.9%2.6%
Table Header
Fund
MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap
2024202320222021202020192018201720162015
10.0%27.2%-11.3%21.6%2.7%18.8%-21.1%34.7%3.3%4.7%
3.4%15.7%-20.0%12.9%14.2%22.4%-18.2%31.6%3.9%2.6%

Portfolio (as of October 31, 2025)

Benchmark: MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap
Asset Allocation
Table Header Fund
Stocks 98.5%
Cash 1.5%
Fund Characteristics
Table Header Fund Benchmark
No. of holdings 140 4127
Weighted avg. market cap (US $MM) $3,621 $2,654
FY2 price/earnings 9.0 13.6
Price/book value 1.1 1.6
Net assets $205,671,117 -
TOP 10 ACTIVE HOLDINGS
Security Country Active weight*
Celestica Canada 2.5%
JOYY, Inc. China 2.0%
Hanwha Corp. South Korea 2.0%
Finning International Canada 1.9%
PT Aneka Tambang Tbk Indonesia 1.9%
Unipol Gruppo SpA Italy 1.9%
VSTECS Holdings Ltd. Hong Kong 1.8%
easyJet Plc United Kingdom 1.7%
AGF Management Canada 1.6%
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (Holdings) Ltd. Singapore 1.6%

A “weighted average” measures a characteristic by the market capitalization of each stock. Price/book ratio is the weighted average of the price/book ratios of all the stocks in a portfolio. The P/B ratio of a company is calculated by dividing the market price of its stock by the company’s per-share book value. The price/earnings ratio is the weighted average of the price/earnings ratios of the stocks in a portfolio. The FY2 P/E ratio is a forward P/E ratio using a next-twenty-four months EPS estimate in the denominator.

*Active defined as Fund weight minus MSCI ACWI ex USA Small Cap Index weight. Holdings are subject to change.

SECTOR WEIGHTS
Sector Fund Benchmark
Industrials 22.5% 20.6%
Information Technology 16.8% 11.8%
Materials 10.5% 12.5%
Financials 10.2% 11.8%
Consumer Discretionary 9.2% 11.2%
Communication Services 8.2% 3.8%
Utilities 5.4% 3.1%
Real Estate 5.0% 9.3%
Health Care 4.2% 6.9%
Equity Funds 3.2% 0.0%
Consumer Staples 2.2% 5.2%
Energy 1.2% 3.7%
TOP 10 COUNTRIES
Country Fund Benchmark
Japan 20.2% 22.6%
Canada 11.1% 7.0%
South Korea 8.4% 4.1%
United Kingdom 8.2% 8.1%
Taiwan 8.0% 6.2%
China 7.8% 3.5%
Australia 5.3% 6.9%
India 4.6% 7.6%
Multi-National All Country 3.2% 0.0%
Indonesia 2.6% 0.6%
Regional Allocation
  • Emerging Asia 33.7%
  • Pacific 29.4%
  • Europe - Other 11.4%
  • North America 11.1%
  • Euro 6.6%
  • Multi Region 3.2%
  • Emerging Europe, Middle East, Africa 1.8%
  • Emerging Latin America 1.0%
  • Developed Middle East 0.3%

Commentary (As of October 31, 2025)

Highlights

  • Global equity markets extended their rally in October, with all major regions, both developed and emerging, delivering positive local-currency returns.
  • The strategy underperformed for the period.
  • International small caps continue to trade at a rare discount to their large-cap peers, and Causeway’s portfolio offers even greater value—combining lower valuation with superior growth, quality, momentum, and estimate revisions, which we believe enhances downside resilience.

Portfolio Attribution

The Causeway International Small Cap Fund (“Fund”), on a net asset value basis, underperformed the Index during the month. To evaluate stocks in our investible universe, our multi-factor quantitative model employs five bottom-up factor categories –valuation, sentiment, technical indicators, quality, and corporate events – and two top-down factor categories assessing macroeconomic and country aggregate characteristics. Alpha factor performance was mixed in October. Among our bottom-up factor groups, our technical and sentiment factors posted positive monthly returns, and technical is the best-performing bottom-up factor group year-to-date and over the last twelve months. Our quality, corporate events, and valuation factor groups delivered negative returns in October. Quality has been the worst-performing factor year-to-date. Returns to our country aggregate factors were negative in October as countries exhibiting more attractive characteristics (such as China) underperformed those with relatively weaker characteristics (such as India). Our macroeconomic factor returns were positive, mostly due to the outperformance of Korea. All factor groups remain positive on an inception-to-date basis.

Investment Outlook

On balance, we continue to see positive developments on the corporate governance front in Korea, which is our largest overweight. In early July, the Korean parliament passed an amendment to the Korea Commercial Act, which included important changes including requiring company boards to now consider the interests of minority shareholders and mandating access to remote participation/electronic voting at shareholder meetings. Moreover, multiple bills are now under consideration to encourage companies to cancel treasury shares. Typically, share buybacks by a company are positive for all shareholders. However, Korean companies have historically exploited share buybacks by making them a tool to increase controlling shareholder control by reducing the number of shares owned by minority shareholders. Meanwhile, minority shareholders do not enjoy the earnings accretion benefit of a buyback since the purchased shares still exist in the company’s treasury. The proposed amendment would, once again, make share buybacks positive for minority shareholders.

International small caps (ACWI ex USA Small Cap Index) continue to trade at a rare discount to their larger-cap (ACWI ex USA Index) peers on a forward P/E basis. In addition to the attractive relative valuation of the asset class overall, Causeway’s International Small Cap portfolio also trades at a substantial discount to the Index while simultaneously exhibiting more favorable growth, quality, momentum, and positive estimate revisions than the Index. We believe that this highly attractive combination of characteristics better insulates our portfolio from future volatility.

The market commentary expresses the portfolio managers’ views as of the date of this report and should not be relied on as research or investment advice regarding any stock. These views and the fund holdings and characteristics are subject to change. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Any securities identified and described in this report do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for client accounts. The reader should not assume that an investment in the securities identified was or will be profitable. Diversification does not protect against market loss. Current and future holdings will be subject to risk. International and emerging markets investments may involve risk of capital loss from unfavorable fluctuation in currency values, from differences in generally accepted accounting principles or from social, economic or political instability in other nations. Emerging markets and smaller companies involve additional risks and higher volatility.

Distributions

Table Header Dividends Short-term capital gains Long-term capital gains
2024 $0.7366 $0.2918 $0.4332
2023 $0.8478 $0.0000 $0.0192
2022 $0.3363 $0.0000 $0.0000
2021 $0.4823 $0.0000 $0.0000
2020 $0.4107 $0.0000 $0.0000
2019 $0.4390 $0.0000 $0.0000
2018 $0.3165 $0.0000 $0.0000
2017 $0.3792 $0.2375 $0.4794
2016 $0.2901 $0.0000 $0.0000
2015 $0.2407 $0.0000 $0.0000

Distributions are per share. Distribution amounts are based on gains and losses realized and income earned by the Fund through October 31 (or earlier under certain circumstances).

Documents

Fund information:

Forms: