Judith MacKenzie, partner and head of public equity for Downing, said she is beginning to see investors think about putting a portion of their portfolio into micro cap and small cap.
Speaking to Financial Adviser’s Simoney Kyriakou, Ms MacKenzie gives her views on the outlook for micro and small cap.
She said: “We’ve been running our micro cap and small cap funds for over five years, and again just going back to that performance element, we target 15 per cent compound per annum, year-in, year-out for the long term, for our underlying investments.
“We’re being pretty cautious going out telling people about it but at the same time not being overly aggressive, in terms of raising funds, because it’s very important to maintain the size of the fund to make sure we can continue within our universe.”
Ms MacKenzie added that most of the companies that Downing invests in have got net cash on the balance sheet, “they’re throwing off free cash, they have management teams that have invested in their own business, so they’ve got skin in the game”.
“There is really good shareholder alignment, and they’re household names – things we would touch and feel everyday without realising we’re involved with a small cap company.
“These are not high risk, blue sky tech companies that we are investing in. It is a really good universe of sensible management teams that are building good companies out there that you can invest in.”
