Monthly Archives: March 2020

Brown Advisory – London

Founded in 1993, Brown Advisory, with AUM of $81 billion, is an independent investment management firm with offices in the US, London and Singapore. The firm manages assets for both private and institutional clients. The London office opened in 2008 and is where the portfolio managers of the Global Leaders strategy ($955 million) and the Global Leaders Sustainable UCITS Fund which was launched in November 2019, are based.

Bertie Thomson and Mick Dillon are the co-portfolio managers of the Global Leaders strategy.

Prior to joining Brown Advisory in October 2015, Bertie spent 13 years at Aberdeen Asset Management where he became a Senior Investment Manager in the Pan European equity team. Bertie graduated with a MA in Architectural History from the University of Edinburgh and is a CFA charterholder.

Mick joined Brown Advisory in 2014 from HSBC Global Asset Management in Hong Kong where he was the co-head of Asian equities. Previously, he managed a global equity long/short fund for HSBC in London and before that, was a global technology equity analyst at Arete Research. He graduated from the University of Melbourne, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Engineer (First Class Honours), a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Science. He is also a CFA charterholder.

How does the London office collaborate with the US office?

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Press Release – COVID-19: Impact on European Corporate Access. 76% of investors no longer attending conferences

March 13, 2020 – Investor conferences are experiencing significant falls in attendance according to a survey of European Institutional Investors conducted by Phoenix-IR, a specialist Corporate Access provider. As many as 76% of investors are no longer attending conferences.

However, although more and more people are working from home or locked down in their offices, it’s interesting to note that at least half the investment community is still engaged in physically meeting with corporate management teams.

60% of investors are still hosting one-on-one meetings in their offices. But only 49% are venturing outside to attend group breakfast / lunch presentations. Almost three quarters said they are no longer participating in reverse roadshows, with 54% of firms suspending international travel.

In terms of how investors wished to communicate with companies, investors remain quite “low tech” when it comes to their preferred method of talking to companies when direct contact is curtailed. Two thirds prefer telephone conf calls and only one third like video conf calls, partly due to the perceived technical and logistical barriers to setting these up.

In response to travel / face-to-face meeting restrictions, Phoenix-IR is hosting virtual roadshows for its clients.  In spite of the furore caused by COVID-19, investors still need to hear from corporates.

80 European-based investors managing approximately $2.5 trillion AuM responded to the survey, which was carried out over two days March 11 and 12.  They represent investors in the UK, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, France, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Poland.

Phoenix-IR is an independent European-based investor relations consulting firm specialized in helping listed companies communicate with institutional shareholders and potential shareholders throughout the U.K. and continental Europe. Phoenix-IR owns and operates www.CorporateAccessNetwork.com