Crux Asset Management’s appointment of top Baillie Gifford manager Ewan Markson-Brown has been described as “quite a coup” for the boutique but fund buyers are taking a wait and see approach until he has a sufficient team around him.
Markson-Brown, who managed the £3bn Baillie Gifford Pacific fund and the £722m Pacific Horizon Investment Trust, has been brought into lead Crux’s Asian equities expansion and will launch two long-term growth strategies in Q4 this year.
He will also help the fund boutique establish a new office in Edinburgh.
Crux CEO Karen Zachary (pictured) said: “Ewan brings great experience as well as an exemplary track record of value creation for investors in Asian equities. With the scalable platform Crux has built over the last five years, his appointment will enable up to expand into Asia with complementary strategies that fit seamlessly into our core active equity management approach.”
Baillie Gifford emphasis on stockpicking will gel with Crux’s high active share approach
Markson-Brown has spent over 20 years managing emerging markets and Asia portfolios including at Newton Investment Management and Pimco.
He had been at Baillie Gifford since 2013, becoming lead manager on the Pacific Horizon trust and co-manager on the Baillie Gifford Pacific fund in 2014.
Both funds are top quartile over all major timeframes. The Baillie Gifford Pacific has returned 221.4% over five years compared to the IA Asia Pacific Ex Japan average of 98%, while Pacific Horizon has generated share price total return of 368.5% versus the IT Asia Pacific’s 141.6% over the same period.
Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, said: “The recruitment of Markson-Brown is quite a coup for Crux and signifies their intention to broaden out their capabilities and deepen the business.
“The stockpicking approach that he followed at Baillie Gifford sits well with the investment philosophy at Crux with high active share being a key part of the process.”
Markson-Brown will need a team around him
But Hughes said there is a bit of a question mark around whether Markson-Brown will have the level of resources at Crux he had at Baillie Gifford.
“While any fund manager from Baillie Gifford is highly regarded, the team element that they employ does mean that some may want clarity on the depth of resources that will be available to Markson-Brown at Crux as the scale of universe and high active share approach is more labour intensive than other areas.”
Ben Yearsley, investment consultant at Fairview Investing, agreed Markson-Brown was a “good hire for Crux” but said the boutique manager will need to build a team around him “as one person on their own isn’t credible”. “Until they do, you can’t really consider the new funds,” he said.
Crux have said that they will be hiring an investment team to support Ewan on the new strategies including two analysts covering Greater China/South East Asia and India.
Luxembourg launches ‘frustrating’
According to Crux, the Ucits funds will seek to identify and exploit pricing inefficiencies in growth companies and capitalise on applying Crux’s regional active equity expertise to deliver strong investment returns from Asian equities.
Yearsley described Crux’s decision to launch the funds in Luxembourg as “frustrating”.
Markson-Brown’s appointment is the second under the helm of Zachary who was appointed CEO in October last year after Crux hired Ashley Dale as an international sales director in March.
Crux currently has £1.7bn worth of assets, including co-founder Richard Pease’s £1bn Crux European Special Situations and £177m Crux European funds.
