HE might not be sure how many, if any, A levels he took but British-born Anthony Rawlinson has a good enough stock-picking brain for his $500 million (Pounds 265 million) global value equities fundto be top of the performance tables.
Mercer Investment Consulting has just ranked Rawlinson’s fund first of 100 after growth last year of 65.8%, some 16% above runner- up Orbis Investment Management and the highest of any such fund since the 1999 dot com boom.
Rawlinson, 48, is chief investment officer of the fund, which operates under Singapore-based Global Value Investment Portfolio Management, the company he co-founded eight years ago.
Known for his bow-ties, he picks up almost Pounds 5 million a year in fees.
While hedge funds have stolen the headlines for performance over the past year, Rawlinson believes he will continue to beat the market by sticking to going long on a handful of stocks. There are only 25 companies in his fund.
“Some months I hardly trade. I hold some stocks for up to five years – buying businesses with two dynamics: single defined niche businesses and those with a strong discount to market who can execute business plans. When it works, the stocks go whoosh,” he says.
The fund charges a set fee of about 0.5% of funds under management for the bulk of the institutional money he manages. “For some, I can do performance-related fees – I could make more, 2% or 3%,” he says.
Not bad for someone who left school with only five O levels and can recall studying for, but can’t remember if he took, a French A level at college.
