James Anderson, the former manager of the Scottish Mortgage investment trust, has joined an investment manager backed by an Italian industrial dynasty.
Anderson has joined Lingotto Investment Management, an FCA-regulated firm managing £2.4bn, owned by Exor N.V., a Dutch company owned by the Agnelli family.
He will focus on his own “specialist experience” of investing in companies with innovation potential, the company said in a statement today (May 15).
Anderson said he was “excited” to be joining the company.
“The opportunity to be part of an entrepreneurial project that aligns with my own view of what investing should be was difficult to resist.
“Lingotto brings together a highly attractive combination of autonomy and structured support, as well as colleagues of great calibre, and I look forward to playing my part in achieving their purpose,” he said.
The news was first reported by the Financial Times.
Anderson left Baillie Gifford last year, after running the company's flagship FTSE-100 Scottish Mortgage investment trust for more than two decades, and was known for early investments in Amazon and Tesla.
Under his tenure, the trust returned 1,155 per cent, however it had stumbled during the pandemic as its favoured growth stocks crashed.
In the year to the end of March 2023, Scottish Mortgage’s share price dropped 33.5 per cent, compared to the FTSE All-World Index which dropped 0.9 per cent.
Anderson is also chairperson of a Swedish investment firm, Kinnevik.
Lingotto
London-based Lingotto has also appointed former chancellor George Osborne, who had previously been the chairperson of Exor’s partners’ council, as non-executive chairperson.
Osborne is currently a partner at boutique investment bank Robey Warshaw.
The Agnelli family is a business dynasty founded by Giovanni Agnelli, an original founder of the Fiat motor company.
Enrico Vellano, chief executive officer of Lingotto, said it was a pleasure to welcome Anderson and Osbourne to the team.
“To be able to attract leaders of their quality and experience is a testament to the ambition of Lingotto and our determination to build a great investment management company.”
sally.hickey@ft.com
