Putnam is a diversified equity asset manager serving investors worldwide. Helping clients pursue their financial goals is our sole business. Founded in 1937 by George Putnam, who established one of the first balanced mutual funds, we have grown into a global investment management firm with over 80 years of investment experience. As a subsidiary of Franklin Templeton Investments since January 2024, we continue to operate with our distinctive investment approach and dedicated team. We manage a range of equity portfolios that fall across size and styles, and span global markets. Our equities organization pursues outperformance of stock market indexes over time through deep fundamental research, which drives our stock selection and portfolio construction process. We believe portfolios driven more by stock-specific exposures than by common factor risks are better able to consistently generate alpha and help manage downside risk across style regimes.

As active investors, we believe our success depends on a highly capable and diverse team of portfolio managers and analysts. We have developed a distinctive, team-based research culture to generate differentiated investment insights. Our research teams benefit from diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and our flat organization encourages collaboration and information flow among portfolio managers and research analysts. With a flat organizational structure for the overall group, senior leadership team members are tenured individuals who help to encourage integrated efforts across our portfolio management, research analyst, and trading teams. Our team-oriented culture encourages collaboration and communication across the firm, and every business unit is committed to innovative thinking, service excellence, and a profound sense of fiduciary responsibility.

We offer actively managed specialized value, core, and growth strategies across U.S. large, mid, and small caps as well as global, non-U.S., and emerging markets. Our hybrid, fundamental research structure encourages debate and idea exchange between sector and strategy specialists to deliver a unique, collaborative view on stock opportunities. Portfolio construction is as important as stock selection in our process. We seek to amplify stock risk and minimize factor risk with the express goal of delivering a smoother performance journey regardless of style regime. We build portfolios that allow the unique features of each stock to have impact on performance, including risk analysis to reduce unwanted volatility during market drawdowns.

Delivering repeatable investment excellence to our clients is at the center of everything we do. The majority of portfolio manager and analyst compensation is performance based, aligning our success with that of our clients. We believe that transparent governance regarding all material business issues, combined with active management, benefits all investors and stakeholders.

We believe the key tenets of our philosophy contribute to performance. Portfolios that emphasize stock-specific qualities are better positioned for more consistent performance in all market environments. Incorporating context-relevant and financially material environmental, social, and governance insights enhances stock analysis. Our research culture prizes collaboration, encouraging continuous formal and informal communication, teamwork, and active debate. Our team is talented, tenured, and diverse.

Our hybrid, fundamental research structure encourages debate and idea exchange between sector and strategy specialists to deliver a unique, collaborative view on stock opportunities. We have developed our construction process to amplify the impact of idiosyncratic risks we find attractive in stocks while reducing common factor risks, especially those that can hurt performance in down markets. Our veteran portfolio managers are accountable for portfolio performance and are skilled in selecting stocks through a collaborative process of exploration and debate with research analysts. Our analysts specialize either as strategy experts focused on the specific needs of a portfolio or as sector experts focused on specific industries. These different specialties lead to more fruitful collaboration in identifying stocks that can make an impact on investment performance.

For more than two decades, Putnam has worked to develop a sustainability strategy that encompasses stewardship, engagement, partnerships, and a company-wide integration of ESG strategy. We believe that active managers have a particular role to play in engaging with company management teams, since our fundamental research process involves regular dialogue regarding corporate strategy and execution. As part of our investment process, engagement with companies and issuers spans a wide range of topics, including long-term strategy, capital allocation, and financially material ESG issues. We believe a sustainable global economy is essential to the creation of long-term value. Our approach to sustainable investing incorporates fundamental research together with consideration of sustainable environmental, social and economic development impact. We believe that companies whose products and services produce positive environmental, social and economic development impact also often demonstrate potential for strong financial growth.

We have established a diversity and inclusion program that recognizes the value of a range of perspectives and contributions. Our Business Impact Groups are key cultural pillars at the firm, helping to build stronger relationships. Organized as part of our diversity and inclusion efforts, the groups build a culture of inclusion and collaboration by focusing on awareness, education, community, professional development, and retention. Our workforce is our greatest asset. We strive to maintain a culture where associates feel respected and ready to achieve. We know that the path toward diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice requires personal engagement that goes above and beyond research and analysis.