Capital at risk
Global Core
This strategy provides access to our best regional equity investment ideas. By combining specialist, actively managed regional equity portfolios, we are flexible enough to run a portfolio in line with your bespoke asset allocation requirements, emphasising, de-emphasising or excluding regions as necessary. It’s our best regional equity ideas, all in one place.
Invest in our best ideas
For more than two decades, our Global Core Strategy has provided clients with the opportunity to invest in Baillie Gifford’s best regional equity ideas with asset allocation bespoke to their needs.
Long-term growth
Our objective is to deliver capital growth over the long term. The flexibility of our approach means we can accommodate a client-specific benchmark for performance measurement purposes.
Our expertise lies in bottom-up stock picking. We have an unapologetically long-term, active, growth-focused method for equity investing. This, along with bespoke asset allocations, creates a portfolio that typically looks very different from the index. We believe differentiation is crucial in order to deliver meaningful outperformance, net of fees, in the long term.
Embracing diversity
The Strategy provides exposure to different geographies around the world and a diverse array of growing companies, while having the flexibility to meet your individual allocation requirements.
Our regional equity teams cover the UK, Europe ex-UK, North America, emerging markets and developed Asia. We take a diversified approach – the Strategy typically invests in 150 to 200 stocks.
A bet against equities is a bet against human ingenuity. Do so at your peril.
Meet the lead manager
Iain McCombie
Iain is the head of our UK Equity Team and co-manager of the UK Core Strategy. He is also the joint manager on our flagship Managed Strategy, which he has been involved in since 2000. Iain joined Baillie Gifford in 1994 and became a partner of the firm in 2005. He has previously spent time on the US Equities Team. Iain graduated MA in Accountancy from the University of Aberdeen and subsequently qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
Meet the teams
Documents
Philosophy and process
Explore our investment philosophy and the processes around how the team constructs the portfolio.
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Strategy portfolio holdings
A list of the top 10 holdings that the representative portfolio invests in.
We can run a portfolio in line with your bespoke asset allocation requirements.
All figures up to: 31 October 2025
| # | Holding | % of total assets |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baillie Gifford Emerging Markets Leading Companies Fund | 4.4% |
| 2 | Baillie Gifford Emerging Markets Growth Fund | 4.0% |
| 3 | Standard Chartered | 2.6% |
| 4 | AstraZeneca | 2.6% |
| 5 | Prudential | 2.2% |
| 6 | Rio Tinto | 2.1% |
| 7 | Marks and Spencer Group | 2.1% |
| 8 | Babcock International Group | 2.0% |
| 9 | St. James's Place | 2.0% |
| 10 | Unilever | 1.9% |
Please note
The information contained on this page is intended as a guide only and should not be relied upon when making investment decisions. All holdings information is unaudited. Source Baillie Gifford & Co. Please note that totals may not add due to rounding.
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Curious to learn more about our products and what we can offer you? Please get in touch.
Important information
Qualified Investors include those that the Financial Services Act (FinSA) defines as Professional or Institutional Clients, which range from central banks to private investment structures with professional treasury operations created for a high-net-worth retail client. If you are not a qualified investor please select “Change” at the top of this page.
Baillie Gifford Investment Management (Europe) Limited is authorised and regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland (Reference number C182354) as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager and UCITS Manager to Baillie Gifford Worldwide Funds plc. Its registered office is 4/5 School House Lane East, Dublin 2, D02 N279, Ireland.
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This website is informative only and the information provided should not be considered as investment or other advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a particular investment. You can read details of our Legal and Important Information here.