Long-term investments

What are longer-term themes?

We have identified a number of persistent long-term global trends that create a variety of longer-term investment opportunities: population growth, urbanization and aging. These types of trends lead to opportunities within topics like retirement homes, security and safety, or clean air and carbon reduction. But topics in the health area such as oncology or obesity are also directly affected, to mention just some of our ideas.

For each long-term theme we’ve identified companies or sectors that will experience superior earnings growth over the long run. By investing in such companies, investors can gain exposure to secular growth, and those willing to invest over multiple business cycles can benefit from potential mispricings created by the typically shorter-term focus of stock markets.

We’ve often heard that our clients are also looking for longer-term opportunities, so we’ve set out what we hope is an understandable framework with clear drivers.

"While aiming to help our clients find answers to some of life's questions, it’s clear that some of the most pressing are not the most immediate ones. The same is true of investment decisions. To protect our clients’ wealth in the longer term and make use of long-term trends, UBS helps turn some of the challenges of our world in transition in their favor."

What is the time horizon of longer-term themes?

We believe the best way would be to invest in a portfolio of themes over the long run, as diversification principles should also be applied in this context. For example, themes such as oncology proved to be more resilient in recessions than, for example, energy efficiency, while both outperformed the wider market over time. EM infrastructure even partially showed negative correlations, supporting the diversification argument.

Overall, and given the longer required investment horizon, longer-term investment themes as defined in our LTI framework should be used as satellite investments.

Are you interested in a long-term investment in sustainable, innovative, and future-oriented themes? Do you find it appealing to invest in interesting companies with growth potential? Invest with us for a better future! With UBS Manage or UBS Advice you can benefit from our tailored solutions – for long-term investments as well.