Global Equity Fund
Edinburgh Partners
Edinburgh Partners is an independent Scottish investment management firm that specializes in managing global equities for European pension funds and investment trusts. The firm was founded in 2003 by a group of fund managers well versed in global equity analysis, but who wanted to focus solely on research rather than administration, an aspect of the job that was increasingly eating time at their former shops.
In our search for equity managers, we only looked at companies that have in place a stable and sustainable ownership structure. Generating attractive returns is always challenging and can be all but impossible if the environment around the manager is constantly changing.
There were four other criteria that weighed heavily in our search for equity managers:
Investment Philosophy
Edinburgh Partners’ investment philosophy is rooted in the belief that concentrated portfolios provide the best approach to achieving high absolute returns. The firm’s founders are research junkies; there is no delegation of analysis responsibilities to juniors, as valuable information and insights can become lost down the line. They focus on identifying undervalued companies and have the patience to hold them until their true value is recognized. Turnover is low and conviction is high. It’s the Scottish way.
Experience
Although the firm is young, its fund managers have an average of 20 years investment experience. The core of the company migrated from the investment arm of a prominent U.K. life insurance company. Edinburgh Partners’ investment team is anchored by its CEO, Dr. Sandy Nairn, a former head of Global Equity Research at Templeton Investment Management. Sandy has surrounded himself with analysts that share his passion and enthusiasm for research. Collectively, the team has over 130 years of investment experience.
Evidence of Success
In their short existence, Edinburgh Partners has firmly established themselves as a first quartile manager. But short-term performance is not an accurate reflection of a portfolio manager’s abilities. Prior to establishing the firm, many of its founders were instrumental in transforming a prominent U.K. life insurer from a fourth quartile laggard to a first quartile leader. And modesty aside, the firm's chief executive has won numerous performance awards for the management of global equity portfolios. There’s no shortage of success here.
Agility
The global equity universe is huge. Edinburgh Partners is not. With assets under management of roughly $8 billion, the firm still has plenty of capacity and flexibility to pursue opportunities and invest in businesses of all sizes. Edinburgh Partners was established with the vision of running unconstrained, non benchmark-oriented portfolios. Their structure and discipline has enabled them to do just that.
