Mid Wynd International completes switch to Lazard Asset Management
Louis Florentin-Lee (left) and Barnaby Wilson (right) will manage the portfolio by focusing on buying companies that 'generate sustainably high returns on capital and can reinvest at similarly high returns to drive future growth'.
The change was prompted by the departures of Alex Illingworth and Rosanna Burchieri, as well as the imminent retirement of Simon Edelsten from Artemis.
Mid Wynd International swaps investment manager from Artemis to Lazard
The new managers, Louis Florentin-Lee and Barnaby Wilson, will retain Artemis' focus on quality global companies as well as its valuation discipline, the board said.
However, they will move away from the previous managers' strategy of building the fund around a series of secular growth themes, and instead concentrate on buying companies that «generate sustainably high returns on capital and can reinvest at similarly high returns to drive future growth», the trust said.
The Lazard duo will hold a more focused portfolio of around 40-50 companies and a lower portfolio turnover of under 20% a year.
This approach will mirror the one used by the team in the Lazard Global Quality Growth strategy, which Florentin-Lee built in 2011, which Wilson joined in 2014.
Florentin-Lee said: «We look for companies making great returns. We are taught in economics that those returns attract greater competition, which ultimately drives down profitability. We think we can find companies capable of defying this economic law. The way the market prices these stocks reflects how long it believes the company can protect its advantage. We work the numbers back from there, and we will consider buying where we think the market is significantly underestimating a company's competitive durability.»
Mid Wynd
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