City Asset Management’s James Calder has bought into the recently launched Miton US Opportunities fund run by former Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip) manager Nick Ford.
Mr Calder, research director at the discretionary manager, said the firm had backed the new fund at its launch because of Mr Ford’s strong track record at Swip, F&C and Gartmore.
The Miton fund was launched in March, with Mr Ford running it alongside Hugh Greives, as part of a growing stable of single-strategy funds at Miton, which has historically been a multi-asset fund house.
Mr Calder said he would look to add to his holding as the fund grew. The research director added he is not afraid to buy into new launches.
“We have developed a natural bias for boutique managers and one of our advantages is that we can buy into funds that are as small as £10m,” said Mr Calder.
“When we sponsor a new launch, we can develop a really good relationship with the management that we could not get at larger firms.”
Mr Calder added that while the fund was new, Mr Ford had more than 20 years’ experience and had a good performance track record.
