Liontrust fund manager Neil Brown is exiting the firm’s growing sustainable investment team to reunite with a fellow Alliance Trust alum at GIB Asset Management.
Brown (pictured) will become head of equities at the $11bn (£8.4bn) sustainable asset manager and will be responsible for launching active equity strategies at the firm, which caters to institutional and professional investors. The asset manager currently runs the GIB Equity Index and Global ESG-Plus Equity strategies.
GIB Asset Management, which operates out of New York and London and is linked to Bahrain’s Gulf International Bank, is headed up by Katherine Garrett-Cox, who used to be chief executive of Alliance Trust until 2016 when she exited following pressure from activist investor Elliott Associates.
Brown, an FE Alpha Manager, had been part of the fund management team at Alliance Trust Investing that was acquired by Liontrust in 2017. In Liontrust’s Q3 2020 results, chief executive John Ions singled out the tripling of the team’s assets from £2.5bn to £7.5bn over the period since their acquisition.
Brown was a lead European equities fund manager within the sustainable team working on the £323.2m Liontrust SF European Growth fund and the €206.3m GF SF Pan-European Growth fund alongside Peter Michaelis. In November 2019, Martyn Jones was promoted from investment analyst to co-manager on the funds.
A Liontrust spokesperson said no replacement would be sought for Brown, who departed in June, because the team is well resourced.
A press release from GIB Asset Management said Brown would develop the firm’s active equity sustainability capability, including a “suite of products” as well as customised investment solutions and segregated mandates.
Both Brown and Garrett-Cox spoke emphatically about the importance of sustainable investment in the release.
Garrett-Cox said she was delighted Brown would spearhead the launch of GIB Asset Management’s equity offering.
“We believe that strong financial returns are generated by putting positive impact at the heart of the investment process. Developing our capabilities in this area is key both for us and our vision for the future, in order that capital is mobilised in support of a more sustainable world and global economy.”
Brown said he was joining the firm at a pivotal time for sustainability.
“Finance has shown that we can be successful through being a force for good. We now have to increase our investment in the transition to more sustainable economies and accelerate our delivery of positive impacts across every region of the world,” he said.
“I have long believed this is best achieved through investing in those companies that create value by delivering on sustainability: positive profits driven by positive impacts. It is a vision that GIB supports, and I look forward to building an innovative capability and range of products here.”
