Veteran global equity manager Simon Edelsten is to make a return from retirement to work with his former colleague Alex Illingworth at new fund house Goshawk.
Edelsten retired from Artemis in October 2023. He and Illingworth had run the Artemis Global Select Fund and Mid Wynd for a decade – for several years with Rosanna Burcheri, now at Fidelity.
Illingworth left Artemis soon after Edelsten retired, setting up Goshawk Asset Management with the support of Christopher Mills’ Harwood Capital Group.
Last month Goshawk announced that it had acquired the Vermeer Global Fund and had launched a global equity active ETF.
Edelsten will now join as Chair of the new company’s Investment Committee, which includes Illingworth and the former Vermeer team of Tim Gregory, James Rowsell and Charlie Fricker.
He said: “Alex wanted to get the band back together, and I couldn’t resist. I’ve known Tim and James for years – they’re outstanding managers. And, from what I’ve seen, Charlie is on track to become one of the best of the next generation. We all have a very similar approach to managing money, and the chance to run a modern active ETF together as well just made this too good an opportunity to miss.”
Edelsten added that the concentration of behemoth Magnificent Seven stocks in global indices had been another factor in his return. He said: “I’ve seen bubbles before but never so much concentration. It feels like an environment that is set up for good active managers, running portfolios selected by traditional valuation measures, to shine.”
Illingworth said: “Simon and I know how to work well together, and we can demonstrate a long-term record of outperformance. With the addition of Vermeer, we make one of the most experienced fund management teams in the global equity space. We’re confident our experience and approach will appeal to investors.”
As Edelsten and Illingworth did at Artemis, the new Goshawk team expect to build their portfolios around investment themes, like AI and automation.
The Vermeer Global Fund will be renamed the Goshawk Global Fund. This fund invests in 50-60 stocks in a range of different growth themes and aims to outperform the index after all costs.
Following the announcement of Vermeer’s long-term future being in the new Goshawk structure, the fund size has grown from £50m to £70m with existing unit holders adding to their holdings.
For a limited period Goshawk is offering a G-class unit, available to advisers, wealth managers and direct investors, with a discounted management fee.
The second fund managed managed by Goshawk is the HANetf Global Balanced Fund UCITS ETF, an active ETF. The objective of this fund is to increase investors’ savings ahead of inflation. The portfolio contains the same growth stocks as the Goshawk Growth Fund but with smaller positions and balanced with bonds and deep-value equities.
Listed on UK and other European stock exchanges, it has ongoing charges of just 0.69% – lower than many comparable funds.
