MUTUAL FUNDS

For Full Year 2019, updating on contributions towards a more sustainable and inclusive world.

Managers of the Baillie Gifford International Growth Fund Tom Coutts, Lawrence Burns, Brian Lum and Julia Angeles give an insight into their investment philosophy.

We stay positive for good reason. Our experience of investing and thinking about the long term gives us a sense of perspective and reminds us that our optimism will be rewarded in time.

There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’, or is there? The International Alpha Team explore what teamworking means for them, and why maintaining a diversity of views and experiences makes for a stronger team.

Are the abrupt changes brought about by the coronavirus (Covid-19) temporary or permanent? Dave Bujnowski considers how a post-coronavirus future may look, and where the biggest changes might be.

In this short series Baillie Gifford’s International Smaller Companies team explores how their radar framework helps them to uncover the most exciting small businesses from around the world.

In this short series Baillie Gifford’s International Smaller Companies team explores how their radar framework helps them to uncover the most exciting small businesses from around the world.

In this short series Baillie Gifford’s International Smaller Companies team explores how their radar framework helps them to uncover the most exciting small businesses from around the world.

In this short series Baillie Gifford’s International Smaller Companies team explores how their radar framework helps them to uncover the most exciting small businesses from around the world.

In this short series Baillie Gifford’s International Smaller Companies team explores how their radar framework helps them to uncover the most exciting small businesses from around the world.

In this short series Baillie Gifford’s International Smaller Companies team explores how their radar framework helps them to uncover the most exciting small businesses from around the world.

Trust is important, as is companies and investors having a long-term focus. The final part of our radar series explores the benefits of everyone pulling in the same direction.

Growing familiarity with China’s markets invites closer examination of governance at a country and corporate level. A company by company approach is vital to limit the risks and find the opportunities, writes Ben Lloyd.

To build great businesses, company management should understand how a company’s culture can affect shareholder value. Gary Robinson looks at how having a distinctive culture can create great opportunities for those looking to invest in thoughtfully managed companies.

To be equity investors we need to be optimists. To be growth equity investors, even more so. To be emerging market (EM) equity growth investors, we actually need something to bring the optimism levels down a bit.

An accompaniment to our annual Impact Report using a different lens to look at the contribution of the Positive Change portfolio to society.

Jenny Davis explores the Asian opportunity.

Disruptive forces are at play, and they are far more powerful and enduring than most would give credit for. Dave Bujnowski explores what the consequences are of this upheaval, and whether this is good or bad news for growth investors.

Recent reforms in China are a big deal for investors. The sheer size of the market, the ability to access unique companies in a relatively new universe, and the speed of change, have encouraged conversation about the position of China in client portfolios. While conscious of the risks, we are excited by the opportunities that exist in China’s A-share market.

The International Alpha team explain the benefits of continuous and multi-disciplinary learning.

Four investors from Baillie Gifford’s ACWI Ex US Alpha team describe the four strands that together comprise their strategy: quality compounders, rapid growers, through-the-cycle winners and capital allocators. Each focuses on a growth company that illustrates their thinking, and which shares ACWI’s long-term outlook.

Investment managers Lawrence Burns and Paulina Sliwinska share thoughts on future trends with Professor Brian Arthur.

It is taken for granted that stocklending is a harmless activity that can produce a little extra return with limited risk. But is this really so? Scott Nisbet investigates.

The Baillie Gifford US Equities team believes extended research trips are a valuable way of gaining deeper insight into companies and disruptive industries. Kirsty Gibson recently spent time in the US finding out about Synthetic Biology.

Focus magazine presents a collection of articles produced by members of Baillie Gifford’s International Focus Portfolio Construction Group and those who work closely alongside them. In the first edition, we explore the investment backdrop in China from a number of angles, look at the various ways in which semiconductors now have an important place in the investment case for several of our International Focus portfolios’ investments, and throw the spotlight on Spotify, one of the more recent purchases and a reminder that not all great technology opportunities arise in Silicon Valley or Shanghai.

We think ‘long-term investing’ and ‘ESG investing’ are synonymous. That’s why financially-relevant ESG considerations are integral to our investment process. Baillie Gifford’s International Equity Fund shares its approach to ESG matters, suggesting that it is a natural part of assessing the longer-term risks to a company’s growth opportunity or competitive advantage. And, something that is hard to replicate via a check-list or passive investing.

Our lives are increasingly cluttered by information overload. And, as Iain Campbell explains, having too much data can hamper rather than improve the process of investing. The key is to ignore irrelevant noise and focus on the drivers of long-term investment returns.

Healthcare has improved exponentially over the last few centuries and is still evolving. Gary Robinson looks at some of the reasons he is excited about investment opportunities in this sector and other areas directly related to it.

In 2017, the Emerging Markets team wrote a paper called ‘Morbid Symptoms’, explaining why they were optimistic despite the confusion of political events in the West. A year on, Will Sutcliffe provides five more reasons to be cheerful about emerging market equities.

One ought to be an optimist to invest in Emerging Markets, but so very few analysts are. Baillie Gifford’s Emerging Markets team explain how they fly in the face of market inefficiencies in their search for excess returns.

Peter Singlehurst explains why it is becoming increasingly important to invest in exciting companies at an earlier stage and offers an insight into the characteristics he looks for in unlisted businesses.

Where do investors get their ideas from? The ACWI Alpha team share some of their best sources of inspiration, with curiosity, questions and time to think, featuring highly on the list.

Everyone agrees to the merits of long-term investing, if only in an abstract way. The ACWI Alpha team look at what gets in the way of long-term investing and what can be done to mitigate it.

Ewan Markson-Brown recently visited Jakarta, where he found a changing political and technological landscape which could see Indonesia emerge as one of the most exciting growth stories globally in the next few years.

The story of investing is really the story of the big winners, those exceptional companies that reshape our world and in the process reap the rewards. Lawrence Burns sets out how a long-term and patient approach to investment is necessary to identify those truly great companies that could drive extreme returns.

Investment manager Mark Urquhart would love to see companies currently in the portfolio still having their place in it in 2050. For him, it is not enough for businesses to endure, they must adapt and, crucially, be brave enough to disrupt themselves, if they are to manifest growth for many years to come.

As our understanding of the concept of global continues to evolve, investment manager John MacDougall suggests that where a company happens to be based will not prevent it from building a high-growth business in the future. As such, we must be prepared to see high-growth companies emerging from new locations across the globe. John explains how the Long Term Global Growth team are adapting their research to accommodate this.

While there is a move away from active management in the US, our US Equities team think it is misplaced. Technology-driven change is creating exciting companies in the US with exceptional prospects, thereby presenting opportunities for active, long-term investors to outperform passive investment strategies.

Over recent years, India has created the world’s largest digitalised database of people. As Ewan Markson-Brown explains, this has enabled it to leapfrog other countries in areas such as banking, and should also increase investment opportunities.