Pacific Horizon’s Markson-Brown departs Baillie Gifford for Crux – Ewan Markson-Brown, co-manager of the top-performing Pacific Horizon investment trust has left Baillie Gifford to join Crux Asset Management in September this year.
Markson-Brown has co-managed the trust alongside Roderick Snell for the past seven years, in which time it has delivered 360%, significantly ahead of its AIC Asia Pacific sector average return of 154% and its MSCI AC Asian ex Japan benchmark return of 114%. Last year alone, the trust delivered excellent results with its ‘growth squared’ strategy of piling into smaller Asian technology disrupters after the pandemic crash. This saw a return of 129% for 2020, causing the trust to beat even Baillie Gifford’s flagship trust Scottish Mortgage, which returned 110%.
The manager also ran Baillie Gifford’s open-ended Pacific fund and co-managed the Baillie Gifford Emerging Markets Growth fund. He oversaw around £5.2bn in assets for Baillie Gifford and so his loss will come as a big blow to the firm.
According to Citywire, after completing three months of gardening leave, Markson-Brown will remain in Edinburgh where he will lead a new office for Crux and become owner of an equity stake in the business, the amount of which has not been disclosed. Crux intends to launch two funds under its Luxembourg-domiciled Ucits umbrella for Markson-Brown later this year, one focused on Asia ex Japan and the other on China specifically.
PHI : Pacific Horizon’s Markson-Brown departs Baillie Gifford for Crux