Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust
| Public | |
| Industry | Investment management |
| Founded | 1909 |
| Headquarters | Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom |
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Key people
|
James Anderson, Joint Manager Tom Slater, Joint Manager |
| Website | www.scottishmortgageit.com |
James Anderson, Joint Manager
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (: ) is a publicly traded investment trust. It invests globally, looking for strong businesses with above-average returns. Scottish Mortgage is managed by Baillie Gifford & Co Limited, the Edinburgh-based investment management partnership. It is listed on the and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The origins of Scottish Mortgage lie in a credit crisis, the Panic of 1907. By 1909 the growing popularity of the motorcar, including the Model T Ford, was creating significant demand for tyres, which rubber planters in Southeast Asia were keen to exploit, but credit was still difficult to obtain. In Edinburgh, the recently formed legal partnership between Colonel Augustus Baillie and Carlyle Gifford (which ultimately became Baillie Gifford & Co) spotted an opportunity. They established The Straits Mortgage and Trust Company Limited. to lend money to the planters, secured on the rubber estates.
Within a couple of years, however, the credit crisis was over and rubber planters no longer required finance from Straits Mortgage on the scale anticipated.
In 1913, the Trust's investment remit was widened to include bond and equity markets worldwide, and its name changed to The Scottish Mortgage and Trust Company Limited.
“By 1913 it was obvious the future of the trust lay in operating as a normal investment trust – that is to say, one which invested in a broad range of securities, very largely overseas, as was typical of Scottish investment trusts of the period, with a strong bias towards North America – rather than the Rubber plantation specialist that had originally been envisaged. In recognition of this, the Board decided to change its name to “The Scottish Mortgage and Trust Limited”; this change of name received official approval on 31 May 1913.”
Early investments reflected the rapid global industrialisation that characterised the period, including shares in oil and railway companies and loans to the Argentine, Indian, Chinese and Imperial Ottoman governments. These reflected Scottish Mortgage’s flexible, unconstrained investment policy which enabled managers to invest shareholders' money in whatever and wherever the manager believed to be the best available opportunities.
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