Commonwealth International Series Trust
What are Commonwealth Funds?
The Commonwealth International Series Trust consists of five mutual funds:
- Commonwealth Australia/New Zealand Fund
- Africa Fund
- Commonwealth Global Fund
- Commonwealth Japan Fund
- Commonwealth Real Estate Securities Fund
Welcome to the International/Global Markets
As alliances between developing countries and governments continue to expand and the needs of the citizens of these countries become more evident, capital is attracted for investment in the production of goods and services designed to meet the needs. Through continuing efforts to standardize reporting, accounting and other pertinent investment information, we believe equity markets globally have become excellent sources of the needed investment capital. These non United States markets now represent greater than fifty percent of all publicly traded issues. This trend seems to be well established as the people of these developing nations continue to become more affluent.
The investment advisors to the Commonwealth International Series Trust "the Commonwealth Funds", continue to be interested in owning companies that identify the future needs of the citizens of the developing nations and then produce goods and services to meet those demands. By identifying specific strengths of certain countries and then "drilling down" where the greatest debt of knowledge exists, many years of international investing experience can be leveraged.
Following these distant economies is a challenging, interesting endeavor yet very basic investment philosophies have guided the firm. We seek to own "real" companies with "real" products using "financials we can understand".
The Commonwealth Family of Funds
The Australia/New Zealand Fund seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation and current income by investing primarily in equity and debt securities of Australian or New Zealand issuers.
The Africa Fund seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation and current income by investing in various African countries' financial markets and economies.
To capture both the United States and "international" investment exposures, the Commonwealth Global Fund was created. This fund invests in both equities and debt instruments of United States and non United States entities.
The Japan Fund seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation and current income by investing primarily in equity and debt securities of Japanese issuers.
The Real Estate Securities Fund invests primarily in equity securities without regard to capitalization, common and preferred stock and securities convertible into common stock. It also invests in debt instruments of these companies.