Baillie GiffordNov 7 2018

Baillie Gifford plots exit for Schroder’s Isa investors

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Baillie Gifford plots exit for Schroder’s Isa investors

Baillie Gifford, which took over the management of the Schroder UK Growth trust earlier this year, is to launch a share placing to provide a speedy exit for investors who own the shares via a Schroders savings plan.

Because the Schroders savings plans can only hold investments in Schroders funds, the shareholders, who owned about 23 per cent of the shares at the time Baillie Gifford won the mandate, were required to switch to another Isa provider in order to stay invested.

Alternatively they could be forced to sell the shares for cash or switch to another Schroders fund.

The deadline for shareholders to take action was the end of October.

In an announcement to the stock exchange this morning, the company said there remains 14.6m shares in the trust held by Schroders Isa clients.

This has prompted Baillie Gifford to extend the share placing, until December 6.

A spokesman for Baillie Gifford stated they expect some shares will continue to be held in the trust by Schroders Isa clients.

With this in mind, Baillie Gifford has hired Winterflood Securities to sell any shares left in the trust that are owned via a Schroders Isa.

The proceeds of the sale will be invested by Schroders into its UK Equity fund, an open ended fund managed by Alex Breese.  

The share placing is not open to retail investors.

The maximum number of shares to be sold will be 14.6 million, though the final number will likely be less than that as some of the Schroders clients will act before the deadline.

The managers of Baillie Gifford UK Growth trust have previously stated they intend to deploy more of a growth, and less of a value, style of investing for the trust.

This fits within the broader style used by Baillie Gifford across its fund range.

The trust had previously been run by Richard Buxton at Schroders, prior to his departure for Merian Global Investors, and then Julie Dean, prior to her departure to Sanditon.

Baillie Gifford won the mandate to manage the trust earlier this year.

david.thorpe@ft.com