James Anderson: signed up for JV

Star stock picker James Anderson is returning to full-time fund management a year after retiring from Edinburgh-based Baillie Gifford.

The veteran investor has joined Lingotto Investment Management, a new firm which will be chaired by former chancellor George Osborne.

It will be a joint venture between the Agnelli family’s holding company Exor and French insurer Covea, with $3bn behind it.

Mr Anderson, who is one of the JV’s first three fund managers, will remain in Edinburgh where he was instrumental in turning Baillie Gifford’s Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust into a top performer in spotting innovative companies.

He will focus on growth opportunities and ‘exponential innovation’ in both private and public markets, starting with a pot of about £500m.

Since retiring a year ago, the 63-year-old has chaired Kinnevik, a Swedish investment company in which he previously invested. He was a long-time investor in Exor companies, including Ferrari.

Lingotto emphasised the strength of Mr Anderson’s record and his pedigree in tech as an early backer of the likes of Amazon and Tesla. The firm said Scottish Mortgage had delivered a 1,115% return during his tenure from April 2000 to March 2023.

However, it suffered a boardroom bust-up over its large exposure to private companies, on top of huge headwinds for its growth-driven style in a rising interest rate environment.

A downturn had already begun while Mr Anderson was still at Baillie Gifford. Investors are now just 25% ahead over the last five years, behind the 48% return for the MSCI ACWI, as the shares have slid to a 14% discount, according to Morningstar data.

Mr Anderson told the Financial Times: “It’s essential that we carry on investing in these sectors rather than worrying about what the Federal Reserve is going to do next.

“The opportunity to be part of an entrepreneurial project that aligns with my own view of what investing should be was difficult to resist.”