Baillie Gifford
Asset manager
Profile
Baillie Gifford is unique in the UK in being a large-scale investment business that has remained an independent private partnership. This ownership structure has allowed us to keep our efforts focused entirely on our clients and their investments.
Locaties
Contacts
Products and Solutions
Assets under management
AUM by Client Type (EUR m)
AUM by Asset Class (EUR M)
Details
Source: Baillie Gifford & Co, as at 30 June 2019, in EUR.
Market View
We believe that our longer term view, our willingness to back our judgment and our single Investment Management office location are differentiating features. There is a lot of short term noise in the market and many players are focused on a three to six month view. We believe that market timing is exceptionally difficult, but that over the long-term, a company that can grow its earnings and cash flow faster than average will have a share price that out-performs. These are the opportunities we aim to identify. Our single Investment Management location in Edinburgh means that we can gain a global perspective of potential opportunities.
Consequently, what we do with the information available to us is more important than the information itself. The same information on companies is available to investment professionals no matter where in the world they are located. Our proprietary research does not seek to reinvent the wheel by reproducing complicated earnings spreadsheets to three significant figures; instead we use the resources at our disposal in the market to provide our raw quantitative data and then use our time to analyse this data in order to gain insights into the business models and competitive advantages of the companies in which we invest.
Values and Objectives
Baillie Gifford has been offering investment management services for more than 100 years. The world has changed in the intervening period and stewardship of the firm has passed down through several generations of partners; however, the delivery of good, long-term investment returns for clients has remained our overriding objective throughout.
Baillie Gifford’s partnership structure is unusual amongst large investment management companies. Our current generation of 43 working partners and over 1000 employees remain singularly focused on our clients’ requirements. We have no external shareholders. This structure helps us to attract and retain talented staff and underpins our organisation’s stability and its distinct and enduring culture. It also allows us to take a long-term view in everything that we do.
There are five main principles to our strategy:
1. Focus investment teams on high value tasks. We aim to reduce distractions to increase the chances of outperformance.
2. Back our investment judgement. Embracing risk within a reasonably diversified portfolio is an integral part of the pursuit of meaningful returns over the long term.
3. Provide high levels of service to enhance client relationships and retain client confidence through clear, thoughtful and helpful communications.
4. Keep our existing clients’ interests’ paramount. Evolving with client needs and developing our business is important but generating strong results for existing clients will always be our core goal.
5. Keep our firm and its activities simple. Our time should be focused on investment activities and on looking after and understanding our clients’ needs. We minimise bureaucracy where we can.
Baillie Gifford’s sole business is investment management. We do not carry out any custodial or intermediary activities. With the exception of some administrative aspects of international pooled vehicles, all operations and controls are carried out in-house.
Baillie Gifford operates within a framework that sets high standards of professionalism and personal integrity. We firmly believe that a strong control environment is essential for our business and we continue to invest in the enhancement of controls where needed.
History
Baillie Gifford & Co was founded in Edinburgh in 1908 and is one of the UK’s largest independent investment management firms, 100% owned by the 43 partners who all work within the firm. Our partnership structure has not changed since 1908 and we are committed to retaining this structure.
Throughout the early part of the twentieth century, Baillie Gifford & Co developed and managed a wide range of investment trusts investing in equities and bonds worldwide. Our first investment offering was a closed-end mutual fund launched in 1909, the Straits Mortgage & Trust Company. The fund initially specialised in investing in the Far East and then moved to a global outlook, with a strong emphasis on North American investments. This trust, now called Scottish Mortgage, is still a client and is one of the largest investment trusts in the industry.
During the 1960s, Baillie Gifford developed its International Equity discipline, becoming one of the first European investment firms to explore the markets of Japan and other areas in the Far East. In recent decades the firm has forged successful investment specialties in Japan, Europe, North America and Emerging Markets.
By the time of its centenary in 2008, Baillie Gifford had offices in New York and London in addition to its headquarters in Edinburgh and was managing more than $100 billion.
Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited was established in 1983 and provides investment management and advisory services to non-UK clients. Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited is wholly owned by Baillie Gifford & Co. It is registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission in the United States of America.
More recently, as our record of stable organic growth has continued, the firm has steadily diversified both in terms of client base and by the range of investment strategies we offer such as multi asset and fixed income strategies. By the end of 2018 we were managing asset of over $220bn for clients in around 30 countries, mainly for pension fund clients but also increasingly for other financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds and private individuals.
Performance Measurement
Fee Structure
When determining fee structures, we aim to ensure clients share the benefits of any economies of scale, enjoy the bulk of targeted outperformance and that the fees reflect the liquidity of the strategy under consideration. This is in keeping with our broader aim, which is to generate long-term outperformance for our clients, net of investment management fees.