Underpinning Ravenscroft’s whole investment process is a thematic approach that takes into account “irrefutable trends” the firm expects will benefit investors over the long term.
As such, rather than take bets on political events, economic outcomes or currency movements, Ravenscroft aims to gain exposure to world themes that will play out over the coming decades. These include global brands, emerging economies, healthcare and technological innovation.
To access these themes, Arisaig Emerging Consumer, Polar Capital Global Technology, Polar Capital Healthcare Opportunities and Findlay Park Latin America feature throughout the fund range.
“If you pick up a Ravenscroft portfolio, you will know it by the themes and trademark weightings,” adds Bousfield.
Grand ambitions
In terms of where next for Ravenscroft, a natural move would be to harness Lansdown’s experience to enter the platform space. However, Lansdown is quick to point out that this is not the intention; at least not for now.
“It is not on the agenda,” he says, “certainly not in the UK. Why would I get involved in a business that is going to compete with Hargreaves Lansdown? I know we cannot compete because I know how good it is and how dominant it is.”
Plus, according to Lansdown, the real answer to this question depends on one’s exact definition of a ‘platform’.
“It is a good back-office system where clients’ assets are kept in a secure environment and they have easy access to them,” he says. “Is Ravenscroft going to have that for its individual clients? Of course it is.
“At Hargreaves Lansdown we did not set out to create a platform; it happened. We set out to create an environment where clients’ assets could be held and where they could access them at all times.”
However you slice it, Lansdown admits Ravenscroft has a major IT spend ahead of it because “there are lots of things we want to do and we have to make sure our infrastructure is up to speed”.
Platform or not, what Lansdown, Bousfield and Harries are all certain about is the ambition to expand Ravenscroft beyond the UK to other offshore hubs.
As Bousfield says: “We are Channel Islands-based and have a foothold in the UK so we do know small spaces and the offshore world. It could be Malta, Gibraltar, Mauritius, Geneva and Monaco; that would be a natural evolution for us.”
