Terry Smith and partners are holding a stake worth approximately £32.1m in the record breaking Smithson investment trust, which began trading on the London Stock Exchange this morning (19 October).
There are four founding partners at Fundsmith, including head of research Julian Robins, and the company announced in August it intended to promote three long standing staff to the rank of partner.
A regulatory announcement out this morning showed the partners collectively hold 3.65 per cent of the shares issued in the trust, which broke the record for the largest initial public offering for a UK investment trust after raising £822m.
Neil Woodford's Patient Capital trust had held the previous record for a trust launch when it raised £800m at its launch in 2015.
When announcing the launch, Mr Smith said he would place £25m of his own money into the trust.
Mr Smith has carved out a considerable reputation as an investor as manager of the £16bn Fundsmith global equity fund, which is the absolute top performer of 151 funds in the IA Global sector over the past five years.
In 2016, Mr Smith made an additional investment of £115m of his own money into Fundsmith.
Prior to launching Fundsmith, Mr Smith, who is the son of a lorry driver from East London, worked for Barclays and in a number of brokerage firms. He is not named as manager of Smithson, but will act as an adviser in his role as chief investment officer at Fundsmith.
david.thorpe@ft.com
