While currently at £3.5m in size, 8AM is looking for rapid growth for the vehicle, to £50m in the short term, then quickly over £100m.
Launched in 2013, 8AM Global Focused Fund maintains an objective of delivering long-term capital growth through a concentrated portfolio, focussing upon current themes that offer a “sensible” foundation to achieve these aims.
It is currently heavily invested in ETFs, though McGrath and Merricks are keen to state that they are not strapped to the “ETF bandwagon”.
Merricks, who will maintain his role at Skerritts, said both he and McGrath share a belief that investment should not be confined to following fixed benchmarks and that “common sense should dictate asset allocation”.
He said: “It makes sense to invest in themes that are here to stay for the next few years at least. Others have been talking about areas such as cyber security and robotics and automation, but we get on and invest in them.
“I’ve never understood why managers invest in sectors they don’t like or believe in just because a benchmark or model tells them to. If you don’t like something, avoid it.”
