We are justifiably proud of our best-in-class* global equity managers. Each has been hand-picked by WTW, our investment manager, to run a part of the Trust’s investment portfolio - and manage a concentrated set of high conviction stocks. Each equity manager brings their own distinct investment style and between them they cover a range of value, growth and quality stockpicking. Together their complementary styles create a unique ‘alliance of best ideas’.
Most have been responsible for equity portfolios of over $1bn. All have invaluable experience of successfully steering portfolios through positive and negative market cycles. Most of our equity managers are not otherwise available to individual investors in the UK.
To find out more about the experience and investment styles of each of our equity managers, you can watch their videos – or read their biographies.
* As rated by Willis Towers Watson.
Bill Kanko is Founder and President of Black Creek Investment Management. He was the lead manager for the Trimark Fund and Trimark Select Growth Fund, with combined assets of more than $13bn.
Approach
Performance built on best ideas: 1 year on
Stock Spotlight: Bill Kanko on Oerlikon and Henry Schein
Introducing Bill Kanko, Founder, Black Creek Investment Management
Investment style
Black Creek’s approach is to look five to ten years ahead and find stocks ‘across the cap spectrum’. Its approach is long term and contrarian.
Pierre Py and Greg Herr are Co-Portfolio Managers with an average of 20 years’ investing experience.
Performance built on best ideas: 1 year on
Stock Spotlight: Greg Herr on Page Group and Microsoft
Introducing Greg Herr, Co-Portfolio Manager, First Pacific Advisors
Investment style
First Pacific Advisors operates a long-term, value-based approach that seeks out companies which have high-quality business models, exhibit financial strength and strong management with a track record of shareholder alignment. Pierre and Greg operate a strict value-based approach.
Rajiv Jain founded GQG Partners in June 2016, having previously worked at Vontobel Asset Management for 22 years. He manages both a global equity and an emerging markets portfolio.
Performance built on best ideas
Stock Spotlight: Rajiv Jain on Alphabet and Heineken
Introducing Rajiv Jain, Founder, GQG Partners
Investment style
Rajiv looks for high-quality and sustainable businesses, whose underlying strength should outweigh its environment and where that company’s strength can only truly be understood through bottom-up analysis.
Ben Whitmore has over 20 years of experience and joined Jupiter in 2006. He has also worked at Schroders, managing both retail and institutional portfolios and about £2bn of assets. Ben is supported by Dermot Murphy, Co-Portfolio Manager.
Approach
Performance built on best ideas: 1 year on
Stock Spotlight: Dermot Murphy on Marks & Spencer and Western Union
Introducing Ben Whitmore, Head of Strategy, Jupiter Asset Management
Investment style
Ben is well known as a long-standing practitioner of contrarian value investing. He seeks businesses that are out of favour and under-valued, but have prominent franchises and sound balance sheets.
Lyrical Asset Management’s investment management team is led by Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Andrew Wellington, and includes Co-Portfolio Manager, Caroline Ritter. Andrew has also worked at Neuberger Berman and New Mountain Capital, where he co-managed the $1.2bn New Mountain Vantage Fund.
Keeping faith with Value
Performance built on best ideas
Stock Spotlight: Andrew Wellington on HCA and Adient
Introducing Andrew Wellington, Co-Founder, Lyrical Asset Management
Investment style
Value matters to Lyrical Asset Management. They adopt a strict discipline around investing in quality companies, seeking businesses they believe will generate attractive returns, are resilient with reasonable debt levels, offer positive growth, attractive margins, competent management and the flexibility to react to all phases of the business cycle.
Hugh Sergeant is the CIO of Equities, having previously held similar roles at Societe Generale Asset Management, UBS Phillips & Drew and Gartmore.
The Beauty of Baidu: The Value in Chinese equities
Performance built on best ideas: 1 year on
Stock Spotlight: Hugh Sergeant on Applus and Baidu
Introducing Hugh Sergeant and River and Mercantile Asset Management
Investment style
Hugh has put in place a model that helps him identify value at different stages of a company’s lifecycle, also giving him signals as to when that value might be unlocked. He has shown strength in smaller companies and classic ‘recovery’ situations.
Sustainable Growth Advisers (SGA) was founded in 2003 by George Fraise, Gordon Marchand and Rob Rohn, averaging over 30 years of investment experience.
Looking 8 years into the future
Performance built on best ideas: 1 year on
Stock Spotlight: George Fraise on Novo Nordisk and AIA Group
Introducing George Fraise and Sustainable Growth Advisers
Investment style
SGA’s investment style is to identify those few truly differentiated global businesses that possess strong pricing power, offer recurring revenue generation and benefit from attractive, long runways of growth.
Andy Headley is Head of Global Strategies at Veritas Asset Management. Andy has over 20 years’ investment experience and is supported by Charles Richardson, Co-Portfolio Manager, who has 30 years’ experience.
Taking a 10-year view
Performance built on best ideas: 1 year on
Stock Spotlight: Andy Headley talks Airbus and Facebook
Introducing Andy Headley, Veritas Asset Management
Investment style
Veritas Asset Management uses a proprietary Real Return investment process with an absolute return mindset. It deploys a number of methods including themes to help identify industries and companies that are positioned to benefit from medium-term growth, globally.
The performance of both Alliance Trust’s equity managers and the overall portfolio is overseen by the Investment Committee, which is chaired by Craig Baker, Group Chief Investment Officer at our Investment Manager, Willis Towers Watson*. The Investment Committee is wholly accountable to the Board, and is charged with the following responsibilities:
Other key members of the committee include Senior Portfolio Managers David Shapiro and Mark Davis – and Stuart Gray, Senior Equity Researcher. Together the team brings to bear over 80 years of invaluable investment experience. They are supported by a team of about 120 research and portfolio management professionals around the world.
* The Alliance Trust Board has appointed Towers Watson Investment Management (Ireland) Limited (TWIMI) as its Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM). TWIMI has delegated the investment management of the Alliance Trust portfolio to its specialist division, Towers Watson Investment Management Limited (TWIM). TWIMI and TWIM are both part of Willis Towers Watson (WTW). On this website we refer to both TWIMI and TWIM as Willis Towers Watson or ‘WTW’.
