Portfolio Management

Introduction

The selection of an investment manager is an important long-term decision for most investors. It is one which should be based on a broad range of factors including fit with the investment managers’ approach and culture, levels of service and interaction, and accountability, as well as investment flexibility, cost and performance.

Aubrey provides services to a broad range of investors, with full administration and the option of onshore or offshore custody arrangements. Aubrey has the authority to manage your portfolio on a daily basis within its agreed parameters and remit, allowing us to efficiently manage your investments on an ongoing basis. However, this should not mean the investment management is ‘distant’, and we believe in the importance of establishing a two-way relationship based on trust, service and transparency. Aubrey works with clients to help them understand and learn more about their investments and investment markets.

Aubrey is a dedicated global investment manager, and its portfolio management options extend those skills to individual investors, across personal, pension, trust, charity, company and bond portfolios.

Inherent in Aubrey’s approach is establishing a direct long-term relationship between each client and our investment managers, understanding clients’ evolving needs and providing flexible investment solutions to cater for important life changes.

Whilst most clients may have sterling as their home currency, many companies and sectors have limited representation within the UK market, and Aubrey typically invests on a global basis, as this provides the best access to investment growth and opportunity.

Our focus is on identifying growing companies, and by extension managers which invest in companies, that can generate excess investor returns through having a combination of:

Strong balance sheets

Financially secure

Strong cash flow

Supports future growth, and dividends

Sustained earnings growth

The engine that drives long term share price performance

Approach

As a specialist investment manager, Aubrey is able to draw on significant internal investment and research capability to provide flexible multi asset and equity-based portfolios, which can include the use of direct investment in both UK and overseas companies, as well as collective investments.

Aubrey has a fully integrated ESG process. We see sustainable investment as a natural extension of our core growth approach, targeting good investment practise by investing in businesses which have a positive corporate culture, accountable management and an understanding that long term returns require efficient and forward-thinking practices.
Aubrey is a signatory of Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI).

The key to any investment strategy is establishing an appropriate mix and balance of:

An investment strategy should consider shorter term risk associated with adverse market movements, and whether these could have a significant effect on your financial position. It is also important to consider longer term risks, such as inflation, as too conservative an approach could affect the achievement of your financial goals and aspirations.

Charges should be fair and fully transparent. Investment costs are normally broken down between the direct costs of managing and administering investments, and indirect costs (principally the underlying costs of investments held on your behalf). Cost is the direct reduction on the net return that is achieved, and it is therefore an important consideration when constructing a portfolio. However, cheapest is not always ways best, and it is a case of avoiding excessive cost whilst providing an appropriate overall investment result.

Clients may have specific investment goals based on individual circumstances, financial outlook and time horizons. Traditional ‘lower’ risk investments may experience limited movements in value in the short term, but may also offer limited opportunity for return, and therefore ability to meet long term aims. Aubrey’s portfolios will typically include a range of investment types with different levels of potential short and long-term risks and return, in order to provide a suitable and appropriate investment strategy.

Aubrey’s investment approach is based on the importance of using a range of different types of investments. These investments are exposed to different markets and underlying economic/investment factors which enables Aubrey to build portfolios which are greater than the sum of their parts, whilst diversifying risk without reducing opportunity for return.

A focus on the construction of coherent, flexible portfolios, as opposed to simply holding a collection of disparate individual investments, is key to sustained investment success.

Typically, the investments Aubrey buys are traded daily and it does not invest where the ability to buy and sell may be restricted. Similarly, we avoid investments which have locked periods (when the manager is unable to sell), or investments that are opaque, have excessively high charges, or use significant amounts of debt.

Instead, Aubrey’s philosophy is based on the ability of investments which can exhibit sustained long-term growth to compound increasing returns for investors, and generate after costs returns ahead of inflation, thereby increasing client wealth.

Service Options

Aubrey understands the importance of providing a range of investment solutions to cater for different investor needs and objectives. These are flexible, meaning clients are not locked into strategies which can’t change and evolve as individual circumstances and needs change. Aubrey offers two service levels, both of which provide the same level of reporting, administration, and access/contact with our investment management team. Where these differ is the underlying investment approach.

Aubrey ensures the solution it provides is suitable for clients’ circumstances and does not result in excessive cost.

Personal Portfolio Service

The primary investment proposition for most discretionary managers is a fully tailored (‘bespoke’) service. Aubrey, however, believes many investors do not need the full flexibility, and therefore cost, which this entails. Aubrey’s solution is the Personal Portfolio Service, which is our core offering. PPS provides investors with full reporting, service levels and contact with the manager, and the underlying investment portfolio will be invested in one or more of Aubrey’s range of best ideas investment portfolios. These underlying portfolios ensure a consistent investment approach, and avoids excessive cost. This is appropriate when the investor does not need the flexibility of a fully bespoke service, whilst ensuring a responsive investment approach which will always be invested in line with Aubrey’s current investment thinking. The minimum investment for the PPS is £250,000 (with a minimum of £100,000-£150,000 in each underlying portfolio, if more than one of the available options is chosen).

The range of underlying portfolios from which the investor may choose include:

MULTI ASSET PORTFOLIOS

Aubrey’s risk-based multi asset portfolios give investors, at different risk levels, access to three ranges of multi asset portfolios;

Aubrey MPS

A range of five risk-based multi asset portfolios, invested across active and passive funds on a multi manager basis.

Aubrey Max MPS

A range of five-risk based multi asset portfolios where the allocation is predominantly to funds managed by Aubrey Capital, thereby giving investors access to Aubrey funds via actively managed portfolios.

Aubrey Sustainable MPS

A range of five risk-based multi asset portfolios, invested across active and passive funds on a multi manager basis, where the underlying investments are selected based on their sustainable and ethical investment approach.

DIRECTlY INVESTED PORTFOLIOS

Two portfolio options investing directly in individual company shares;

Aubrey Global Growth

Invested directly in a portfolio of c. 30 best ideas global growth shares selected from the research and analysis carried out by Aubrey’s internal investment teams.

Aubrey AIM Portfolio

Invested directly in a portfolio of c. 30 growth shares trading on the AIM market. Shares are selected based on Aubrey’s investment view, supported by external validation by an expert third party, that the shares are likely to qualify for IHT relief.

Bespoke Portfolio Service

This may be suitable where the investor requires a specific investment strategy, or when the investment strategy has specific requirements around cash needs, time scales, income and areas of investment to be favoured or excluded. It may be an existing portfolio is being transferred to Aubrey’s management, and considerations such as existing taxable gains need to be managed over time through a bespoke portfolio approach. The BPS could also be more appropriate where multiple portfolios are being managed for an individual, or as part of a family group, where the nuances of the strategy require the fine tuning of a bespoke arrangement. The ability to offer a specific and tailored approach for clients is something which Aubrey continues to see as a key attraction for many investors, and the BPS allows the manager to cater for these requirements.

The BPS offers clients Aubrey’s highest level of relationship and support from our investment team. The minimum portfolio size for this service is £500,000.