Scottish investment house raises £173m for US fund

EDINBURGH investment house Baillie Gifford has raised £173 million for its new US Growth Trust, having last month signalled a target of £250m.

Baillie Gifford joint senior partner Andrew Telfer hailed the raising of £173m as an endorsement of the fund management house’s ability to find “exceptional growth companies” in which to invest in the US. And he highlighted plans to increase the size of the trust by issuing shares at a premium to net asset value.

Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust will target companies with the potential to achieve “substantially” faster-than-average growth.

The investment house noted the trust would invest in both listed and unlisted companies, up to a combined maximum of 90 holdings. It said there would “typically” be 30 to 50 listed companies in the trust’s portfolio.

Baillie Gifford added that the maximum amount invested by the trust in unlisted securities would not exceed 50 per cent of total assets. This would be measured at the time of investment.

The trust’s portfolio will be run by Gary Robinson and deputy managers Helen Xiong and Andrei Kiselev, of Baillie Gifford’s US equities team. This team manages the £1.1 billion Baillie Gifford American Fund, which the investment house noted had returned 151.9% over five years to February 28.

Mr Telfer said: “To raise £173 million for a long-only equity trust is an excellent achievement and an endorsement of our ability to find exceptional growth companies in both [the] listed and unlisted space in the US. The trust will seek to grow its assets from here through issuance at a premium to NAV (net asset value) in the way that most of the other trusts we manage have done over the past 12 months.”

Dealings in the Uk-listed trust’s shares are due to start on Friday.