Keith Ashworth-Lord, who has run the fund since its inception in 2011, aims to replicate the investment style of legendary value investor Warren Buffett. Ashworth-Lord aims to invest in companies with strong balance sheets and the ability to grow over the long term. His style is known as ‘business perspective investing’, which follows Buffett’s principle of buying shares in good businesses for less than the businesses are intrinsically worth, and ideally holding the shares forever. While that might not always be the case, Ashworth-Lord is investing on a time horizon of at least five to 10 years.

He says the fund’s success is down to getting the investments right after extensive research. When he finds an attractive investment, he invests a meaningful amount in it. He concentrates the fund in relatively few companies – around 35 holdings typically – which he feels he knows a lot about. Ashworth-Lord firmly believes that investment is a business venture, not a gamble, and that it is the companies owned that make money for the investor, rather than the stock market.

September 2020