As the head of Henderson Global Investors’ global equity income team, Alex Crooke oversees some of the fund house’s most high-profile strategies – and £10bn in assets.
But the importance of this team to Henderson does not necessarily mean its personnel are drawn from conventional fund management sources.
“I like to hire people from varying backgrounds. Some are economists, [but] others are scientists or engineers or geographers,” Mr Crooke outlines.
The manager has spent more than two decades running money, but his own background is similarly uncommon. He “freely admits” he had no idea what to do at the start of his career, having graduated with a degree in physics with astrophysics.
While doing the rounds at job interviews, an encounter at a life company with the manager of a Japanese equity fund then planted a seed in his mind.
“We chatted about what he did, his job,” he explains. “I had no idea about it, but it just intrigued me. He said intellectually it’s very stimulating – you’re betting yourself against some of the finest minds out there that you can build a better portfolio than they can.
“And every day, you never quite know what you’ll be doing, because news changes and results go up and down and governments do things, and so it’s very stimulating in that sense.”
This encapsulation of fund management appealed to Mr Crooke, who acknowledges that he has a mathematical mind. So he landed a job at Equitable Life, taken on by a boss with a preference for the scientifically minded, “because he felt they came with less preconceived ideas about how things work”.
“I’ve carried that on,” he says, referring to the make-up of his own team at Henderson.
In terms of his own specialisation, Mr Crooke realised early on that he preferred equity investing to fixed income. “It’s a lot more fun – you get to meet real companies doing things.”
Then a few years later, he was headhunted by Henderson, where he helped to run the Witan Investment Trust and went on to manage the Bankers Investment Trust.
“That gave me actual funds to run. So it broadened out my possible experiences and markets that I cover and also brought me in contact with a much bigger group [that] I think felt more focused in what it was doing,” he says.
“What I liked about Henderson was it was full of very bright people, all trying to deliver the best performance to their clients. I felt that was a more rewarding culture and a place I wanted to see if I fitted in with.”
It seems he slotted in nicely, as he is now in charge of a team running £10bn of assets.
“As opportunities have arisen, I’ve had a chance at taking them,” he explains. “So actually, things have opened up for me. I’ve been a bit lucky in that respect.
“But equally, I like the culture of this place. It is about sharing information. We all sit in an open-plan floor – we’re not in ivory towers. And we’re all genuinely trying to do the best for our clients and for Henderson. That I find a most stimulating environment to work in.”
Mr Crooke seems to appreciate the freedom Henderson allows him to invest in different markets and points out there’s no ‘house policy’ at the fund manager.
“We’re allowed to create our own investment styles and culture in that sense. I think the overriding culture is this sharing information and collegiate atmosphere, but within each team we’ve got growth teams and value teams, and we’re probably more the value and income tilt to that,” he adds.
Having dipped his toe in growth investing, the manager decided that wasn’t the approach for him. “When I first started, I looked at growth investing in the American market and I sort of shied away from it, really. I didn’t feel I could consistently perform,” he admits.
“Growth investing has great upsides – when markets are strong for you, it runs away and you can perform very well, but I didn’t feel I consistently had a grasp and control of the portfolio and the prospects it was going to deliver.
“I felt with a value and income bias, it produces better risk-adjusted returns; so higher returns for a lower volatility of the underlying assets, which I think is better for people’s savings.”
It’s a style that works best for the investors Henderson is aiming for, such as those who invest via Individual Savings Accounts (Isas). For Mr Crooke, value investing requires taking less headline risk but having more patience, as “you have to be prepared to wait and argue why you’re in this stock that’s going nowhere”.
He goes on: “You have to be prepared to say, ‘I’m not going to follow that crowd, I think what I’ve got is good value and in time it will produce very good returns, which is why I think marrying it with this income bias is great.’
“I’ve got shares that are cheaper than the average in the market, which I think will appreciate. But equally, every year I get a dividend.”
His current job, he says, was something he “wanted to have a go” at when the opportunity arose. At the time, Henderson was absent from several markets, including Europe and Australia. These days the group is making a firm push into the Australian market in particular, with the acquisition of three asset management firms earlier this year and a fund launch.
It already has a presence in the US, having launched a US mutual fund in 2006 that he co-manages with his colleague Job Curtis.
“We all yearn, I suppose, at some point to look back and say, ‘I created that,’” says Mr Crooke. “I think there’s a great opportunity here to create quite a big business in Henderson across the world. We’ve got clients now in New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Europe, America, and now Latin America. I think what we’ve got is good and I think it’s a case of putting these products in different markets.”
The Australian market bears some similarities to the UK’s, though naturally there are differences. “It’s a huge savings market and it’s one that’s been in the accumulation phase for a few years now, so investors have been building their pension pots,” he observes.
“Over the next 10 years those investors will go from earning money and accumulating savings, to retirement and wanting income. So I think that’s an opportunity where our products can help them in terms of giving them a high yield, but still growing their pot of capital a little bit while they move to the phase where they want absolute income and probably drawing down on their capital.”
While he acknowledges the recent reform of the UK’s pensions industry has prompted investors to take matters into their own hands when it comes to investing, he believes the RDR has also played a role in driving this trend.
“I think the UK has the same issue I was telling you about Australia. A large bulk of the population is now moving from building their cash pile for retirement into wanting an income off it. What an equity dividend-paying fund does really well is it provides you with a growing stream of income.”
He hopes that the British government will provide more clarity on pensions, but complains that those in Westminster “keep fiddling around with the tax benefits”.
“Surely we need to look after ourselves and not rely on the state or our children to fund our retirement,” he says. “There’s got to be some clear policy decisions on how one does that.”
His plans for Henderson are clear-cut, though: “We’ve mainly got funds now where we want them, and the key is to grow them and persuade investors that we are the place they should choose to trust their money.
“The number-one driver is to keep performance top of the table, so we need to be the best at what we do.
“That keeps our existing clients happy and if that draws new investors to us, that’s good news as well.”
CV
Alex Crooke
2013 – present
Head of global equity income team, Henderson Global Investors
2012 – present
Lead manager, Henderson Dividend and Income Builder (US mutual fund), Henderson Global Investors
2006 – present
Co-manager, Henderson Global Equity Income fund (US mutual fund), Henderson Global Investors
2003 – present
Manager, Bankers Investment Trust
1997 – 2015
Manager, Henderson High Income Investment Trust
1994 – 1997
Associate director of investment trusts, Henderson Global Investors
1990 – 1994
Investment analyst, Equitable Life Assurance Society
