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Scottish Mortgage’s James Anderson to step down

James Anderson to leave Baillie Gifford following 39 years at the firm
March 19, 2021
  • James Anderson to leave Scottish Mortgage in April 2022
  • Tom Slater to continue as manager with Lawrence Burns promoted to deputy

Famed fund manager James Anderson, co-manager of the £16.5bn Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT), has announced he will leave Baillie Gifford in April next year after nearly four decades with the firm. 

The trust’s co-manager, Tom Slater, will continue to run the trust, with Lawrence Burns, co-manager of the firm’s international concentrated growth strategy, promoted to deputy manager with immediate effect. 

Anderson joined Baillie Gifford in 1983 and became a partner four years later. He has managed Scottish Mortgage since 2000, with Slater joining him as co-manager in 2015. 

Scottish Mortgage, which invests in high growth companies, has had staggering performance since Anderson took over and is now the biggest investment trust in the UK by many multiples and the 31st biggest company listed in London. 

Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, notes its share price has risen 1,700 per cent since 2000 - the equivalent of turning £1,000 into £18,000, compared with just £4,440 if invested in its benchmark, the FTSE All World index.

While the trust’s long-term performance is unrivalled by any mainstream investment trust, performance so far this year has slipped. The trust’s share price is down 7 per cent year to date, following an initial fall of nearly 2 per cent on the news of Anderson’s leaving. It is currently trading at a 2 per cent discount to its net assets, having tightened from a mid teens discount earlier this month following a stumble for growth stocks.

The news may come as a concern but, as Hughes points out, “it’s important to remember how Baillie Gifford work with the investment process being firmly embedded in the team-based approach and experienced investor Tom Slater remaining at the helm”. The company has previous form of dealing with senior departures - including when Sarah Whitley, partner and head of the Japanese equities team, left in 2018.

On 29 April 2021, Anderson will stand for non-executive chairman of the Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, a company that has been held in Scottish Mortgage for over five years. If appointed, Baillie Gifford said Anderson would “recuse himself from any investment discussions and decisions” about Scottish Mortgage’s position in the Swedish firm and its investments while he remains co-manager of the trust. 

Anderson said: "I have huge admiration for Tom and Lawrence. They are both thoughtful, dedicated and ambitious investors with a willingness to learn and an outstanding ability to partner with great companies. I couldn’t be happier than to have them as my successors."

Slater is head of Baillie Gifford’s US equities team, co-manager of Baillie Gifford’s American Fund and a decision maker on its long term global growth portfolios. He joined Baillie Gifford in 2000 and became a partner in 2012.

Burns joined Baillie Gifford in 2009. In 2012 he became a member of the portfolio construction group for Baillie Gifford’s international growth strategy. Since 2017, Burns has co-managed the international concentrated growth strategy and last year he became a manager of the Vanguard International Growth fund.

Read our recent interview with James Anderson and Tom Slater where they divulge how they approach finding the world’s greatest growth companies. 

Or listen to the interview, recorded in early December 2020 (47 minutes).