Material Risks

The following is a description of the principal risks of Vulcan’s methods of analysis and investment strategies that may adversely affect risk and return. There are other circumstances (including additional risks that are not described here) which could prevent Vulcan from achieving its investment objective.

Business Ownership Risk. Vulcan treats investing as partial ownership of qualifying businesses. As partial owners of these companies, you face the risks inherent in owning a business.

Concentration Risk. A strategy that concentrates investments in a particular industry or in fewer individual portfolio holdings has greater exposure than other strategies to market, economic and other factors affecting the industry or the specific companies that are held in the portfolio.

Economic and Market Events Risk. Markets can be volatile in response to a number of factors, as well as broader economic, political, military and regulatory conditions. Some of these conditions may prevent Vulcan from executing a particular strategy successfully. It is not always possible to access certain markets or to sell certain investments at a particular time or at an acceptable price, thereby impacting the liquidity of a given portfolio. The value of a client account will change daily based on changes in market, economic, industry, political, military, regulatory, geopolitical and other considerations.

Equity Risk. Clients are subject to the risk that stock prices will fall over short or extended periods of time, and clients could lose all, or a substantial portion, of the value of their investments. Historically, the equity markets have moved in cycles, and the value of equity securities can fluctuate significantly from day to day. Markets go through periods of rising prices as well as periods of falling prices depending on investors’ perceptions about the economy, interest rates, and the attractiveness of other securities such as bonds or real estate. Individual companies can report poor results or be negatively affected by industry and/or economic trends and developments. The prices of these companies’ securities can decline in response. These factors contribute to price volatility, which is a principal risk of equity investing.

Small and Medium-Sized Company Risk. Small and medium-sized companies may have more limited product lines, markets and financial resources than larger companies. In addition, small and mid-cap stocks may be more volatile than those of larger companies and, where trading volume is thin, the ability to dispose of such securities may be more limited.

Large Cap Companies Risk. To the extent a strategy invests in large capitalization stocks, the strategy may underperform strategies that invest primarily in the stocks of lower quality, smaller capitalization companies during periods when the stocks of such companies are in favor.

Issuer Risk. The value of a security may decline for a number of reasons which directly relate to the issuer, such as management performance, financial leverage and reduced demand for the issuer’s products or services.

Non-diversification Risk. Generally, Vulcan’s strategies are classified as non-diversified. As a result, an increase or decrease in the value of a single security may have a greater impact on total return. Being non-diversified may also make a strategy more susceptible to financial, economic, political or other developments that may impact a security. Although Vulcan may from time to time hold more securities than at other times, the non- diversified strategy gives Vulcan’s portfolio manager more flexibility to hold larger positions in a smaller number of securities.

Non-U.S. Securities Risk. To the extent that Vulcan invests in companies based outside the U.S., we face the risks inherent in foreign investing, which includes the loss of value as a result of political or economic instability; nationalization, expropriation or confiscatory taxation; changes in foreign exchange rates and restrictions; settlement delays and limited government regulation. Adverse political, military, economic or social developments could undermine the value of our investments or prevent us from realizing their full value. Political and military events, including in North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Ukraine and other areas of the Middle East, and nationalist unrest in Europe and South America, may cause market disruptions. Financial reporting standards for companies based in foreign markets differ from those in the US. Additionally, foreign securities markets generally are smaller and less liquid than U.S. markets. To the extent that Vulcan invests in issuers located in emerging markets, the risk of loss may be heightened by political changes and changes in taxation or currency controls that could adversely affect the values of these investments. Emerging markets have been more volatile than the markets of developed countries with more mature economies.

Currency Risk. The value of an investment may fall as a result of changes in exchange rates.

Options Risk. Options positions may include both long positions, where a portfolio is the holder of put or call options, as well as short positions, where a portfolio is the seller (writer) of an option. The expiration of unexercised long options effectively results in loss of the entire cost, or premium paid, for the option. Conversely, the writing of an uncovered put or call option can involve, similar to short-selling, a theoretically unlimited risk of an increase in an account’s cost of selling or purchasing the underlying securities in the event of exercise of the option. Although Vulcan’s use of options is generally limited to writing call options on securities held in client portfolios, this and other option techniques can involve different risks than investment strategies that do not employ option strategies.

American Depository Receipts Risk. American depository receipts (“ADRs”) are receipts issued by a U.S. bank or trust company evidencing ownership of underlying securities issued by non-U.S. issuers. ADRs may be listed on a national securities exchange or may be traded in the over-the-counter market. Holders of unsponsored ADRs generally bear all the costs of such facilities. The depository of an unsponsored facility frequently is under no obligation to distribute investor communications received from the issuer of the deposited security or to pass through voting rights to the holders of depository receipts in respect of the deposited securities. Investments in ADRs pose, to the extent not hedged, currency exchange risks (including blockage, devaluation and non-exchangeability), as well as a range of other potential risks relating to the underlying shares, which could include expropriation, confiscatory taxation, imposition of withholding or other taxes on dividends, interest, capital gains, other income or gross sales or disposition proceeds, political or social instability or diplomatic developments that could affect investments in those countries, illiquidity, price volatility and market manipulation. In addition, less information may be available regarding the underlying shares of ADRs, and non-U.S. companies may not be subject to accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards and requirements comparable to, or as uniform as, those of U.S. companies. Such risks may have a material adverse effect on the performance of such investments and could result in substantial losses.

Managed Portfolio Risk. Vulcan’s investment strategies or selection of specific securities may be unsuccessful and may cause clients to incur losses.

Cybersecurity and Operational Risk. In addition to the risks described that primarily relate to the value of investments, there are various operational, systems, information security and related risks involved in investing, including but not limited to “cybersecurity” risk. Cybersecurity attacks are electronic and non-electronic attacks that include, but are not limited to, gaining unauthorized access to digital systems to obtain client and financial information, compromising the integrity of systems and client data (e.g., misappropriation of assets or sensitive information), or causing operational disruption through taking systems off-line (e.g., denial of service attacks). As the use of technology has become more prevalent, we and the client accounts we manage have become potentially more susceptible to operational risks through cybersecurity attacks. In addition, the work-from-home environment necessitated by COVID-19 has increased the risk of cybersecurity attacks given the increase in cyber-attack surface stemming from the use of personal devices and non-office or personal technology. Cybersecurity attacks in turn could cause us and client accounts we manage to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss. Similar adverse consequences could result from cybersecurity attacks affecting issuers of securities in which we invest, counterparties with which we engage in transactions, third-party service providers (e.g., a client account’s custodian), governmental and other regulatory authorities, exchange and other financial market operators, banks, brokers, dealers and other financial institutions and other parties.
Cybersecurity attacks can cause Vulcan, or its service providers, to lose proprietary information, suffer data corruption, lose operational capacity (e.g., the loss of the ability to process transactions, generate or make filings or deliver reports or statements, or other disruptions to operations), and/or fail to comply with applicable privacy and other laws. Among other potentially harmful effects, cybersecurity attacks can result in the theft, unauthorized monitoring and failures in the physical infrastructure or operating systems that support Vulcan and its service providers.

Vulcan has developed cybersecurity risk management systems and a business continuity plan designed to minimize the disruption of normal business operations in the event of an adverse incident impacting Vulcan. While Vulcan believes that such plans are comprehensive and should enable us to reestablish normal business operations in a timely manner in the event of an adverse incident, there are inherent limitations in such programs (including the possibility that contingencies have not been anticipated and procedures do not work as intended) and under some circumstances, Vulcan and any third-party service providers could be prevented or hindered from providing services to a portfolio for extended periods of time. These circumstances may include, without limitation, acts of God, acts of governments, any act of declared or undeclared war or of a public enemy (including acts of terrorism), power shortages or failures, utility or communication failure or delays, labor disputes, strikes, epidemics, shortages, supply shortages, and system failures or malfunctions. These circumstances, including systems failures and malfunctions, could cause disruptions and negatively impact a portfolio’s service providers and a portfolio’s operations, potentially including impediments to trading portfolio securities. A portfolio’s ability to recover any losses or expenses it incurs as a result of a disruption of business operations may be limited by the liability, standard of care and related provisions in its contractual arrangements with Vulcan and other service providers.

Other Risks May Be Disclosed in Specific Disclosure Documents
The risks described above represent a general summary of the material risks inherent in Vulcan’s methods of analysis and investment strategies. Investors in pooled investment vehicles should refer to the applicable prospectus, confidential private placement memorandum, or other offering document, which contains additional risk factors and disclosures and should be reviewed carefully before investing.