Specialist fund management company Liontrust has completed the acquisition of Neptune Investment Management Limited.
The Neptune investment team, headed by Robin Geffen and which is now named the Liontrust Global Equity team, has joined Liontrust along with 19 Global, Income, Regional and Emerging Markets funds. There will be no change to the managers running the funds or the investment process used.
Robin Geffen will focus solely on managing funds and the investment team.
The funds have all been rebranded Liontrust and the Neptune Global Income Fund is now called the Liontrust Global Dividend Fund.
The acquisition broadens Liontrust’s fund range and investment skills predominantly in areas not covered by the firm’s current eight investment teams.
The funds bring excellent long-term investment performance. Liontrust Income is ranked 2nd out of 79 funds in the IA UK Equity Income sector over three years to 31 August 2019. Liontrust Global Alpha is ranked 1st, Liontrust Global Dividend is 2nd, Liontrust Global Technology is 2nd and Liontrust Balanced is 4th in their respective IA sectors over three years.
This performance is reflected in seven Neptune funds being granted Five Crown Ratings from FE on 29 July 2019: Income, Balanced, Global Alpha, Global Smaller Companies, Global Technology, Latin America and Russia.
The strength of the combined investment capability of the two companies is demonstrated by the fact that Liontrust has 11 funds with FE Five Crown ratings, which is the joint second highest of all asset managers. The combined fund range has a total of 18 funds with Five Crown Ratings.
John Ions, Chief Executive of Liontrust, says: “This is great for Liontrust and for the investment team at Neptune. We have been impressed by the quality of Robin and his team and they bring an excellent range of funds with strong long-term performance.
“Liontrust provides the investment team with an environment that will enable them to concentrate on delivering returns and meeting the expectations of clients and investors.
“The range of funds managed by the Liontrust Global Equity team broadens our product range and will help us further our growth strategy. Liontrust has moved forward strongly over the last several years. We believe our business is well positioned to continue this growth with an excellent investment proposition and our continued focus on client service.”
Geffen adds: “We are delighted to be joining Liontrust and benefiting from the leadership at the company along with the impressive sales and marketing teams. We have seen how they have grown awareness and assets for other investment teams at Liontrust.
“The move to Liontrust allows me to devote all my time to managing the Global Equity investment team and the funds I run. The fact that I can focus all my energy on my real passion of managing funds is really exciting for me. I am also thrilled that I can continue to manage the funds exactly how I want to run them.”
