Edinburgh-based fund house Baillie Gifford has raised £173 million (€198 million) at launch for its US Growth Trust – slightly below an initial target of £250 million.
The trust will focus on “exceptional growth companies” in the US, which have the potential to grow faster than the average company over the long-term.
It will invest in both listed and unlisted companies, up to a combined maximum of 90 holdings, typically with 30 to 50 listed companies in the portfolio.
The maximum amount invested in unlisted securities will not exceed half of the trust’s total assets.
The trust will be managed by Gary Robinson and deputy managers Helen Xiong and Andrei Kiselev, members of Baillie Gifford’s US equities team and managers of the £1.1 billion Baillie Gifford American Fund.
Tom Burnet has been appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors, with Sue Inglis and Graham Paterson joining him as additional independent non-executive directors.
Andrew Telfer, joint senior partner at Baillie Gifford, said: “To raise £173 million for a long-only equity trust is an excellent achievement and an endorsement of our ability to find exceptional growth companies in both the listed and unlisted space in the US.
“The trust will seek to grow its assets from here through issuance at a premium to net asset value in the way that most of the other trusts we manage have done over the past 12 months.”
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