Perhaps not the ideal time, then, to take the helm of a portfolio. But former Standard Life Investments manager Ed Legget, now of Artemis, believes the UK market still offers rare opportunities for those who know it best.
“If you look at the UK equity market, it is small enough that, as an individual, you can have a pretty good understanding of the companies within it, certainly enough to take an informed investment view yourself. Whereas when you get into running global equities, the challenge is slightly different in that you are looking for other people who know in detail about the companies. Because the universe is so broad, you can’t have an in-depth knowledge of the whole universe you’re investing in,” he explains.
Amassing information on the domestic market began early on. Although he studied engineering at university, an internship at Schroders during his course allowed him to explore an alternative career. He recalls he was “attracted by the access you got as a fund manager to companies”.
[We] took the decision to evolve the portfolio through time, as opposed to making a large change on day one Ed Legget, Artemis
As a result, he joined Standard Life in 2002 as a graduate. “I took the fund management route and have been pursuing the challenge of understanding how companies’ business models work, how they make their money and the sustainability of that profitability through time ever since,” he says.
But after 13 years at the firm, including seven years running the Standard Life Investments UK Equity Unconstrained fund, Mr Legget decided to join Artemis in December 2015, and took on the Artemis UK Select fund from Tim Steer in January this year.
“It was a new challenge and the opportunity to be a partner and an owner of a business that is going through an interesting growth phase,” Mr Legget says of the move.
“When I joined SLI there were 400 people and when I left there were more than 2,000. Being part of that growth was exciting and made it a great place to work while I was there.
“[I have] the opportunity to follow that path again at Artemis, which is a smaller company but has some exciting opportunities both within the UK and in selling funds out of the UK.
