Gresham House, the London-based and AIM-listed alternative investment management firm, has certainly come a long way since Tony Dalwood and his management team assumed control in December 2014.
Under Mr Dalwood’s stewardship what was effectively a moribund property-focused closed-ended investment trust has been transformed into a dynamic investment management boutique that currently offers five main alternative investment strategies.
Growth over the past 12-months or so has been particularly rapid. Helped by a number of acquisitions together with organic growth assets under management have increased by 250 percent from £649 million to £2.27 billion.
Around £1.1 billion of the increase in assets under management is accounted for by two significant acquisitions.
In May 2018 Gresham House acquired FIM Services, an Oxford-based specialist alternative investment manager that focuses on forestry and renewable energy.
At the end of November 2018 the firm acquired the funds and investment management business of Livingbridge, the asset manager that oversees the Baronsmead Venture Capital Trust (VCT) along with two open-ended vehicles, the LF Livingbridge UK Micro Cap Fund and the LF Lingbridge UK Multi-Cap Income Fund.
But Gresham House also grew its existing funds significantly helped by new fund launches.
These include the £100 million Gresham House Energy Storage Fund launched in November 2018 and the British Strategic Investment Fund, a closed-ended Guernsey Limited Partnership that invests in illiquid investments in UK housing and infrastructure.
Given its venture with Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) last week, underpinned by the Edinburgh-based firm acquiring a 5 percent stake in Gresham, the firm is likely to grow further over the medium-term.
Indeed the British Strategic Investment Fund will deploy additional capital during the year to bring total assets under management at closureto around £250 million with the prospect of a similar vehicle to be launched within the next 12 months.
The five main investment strategies offered by Gresham House consist of Strategic Private Equity (SPE), or the use of private equity principles within the listed or public equity sector, with a focus on smaller companies; private assets, i.e. private equity and venture capital; forestry; new energy; and housing and infrastructure.
SPE is arguably Gresham House’s core strategy and embodies the processes and techniques developed by Mr Dalwood during time spent as a private equity manager at SVG Investment Management where he was chief investment officer and SVG Advisors, the former Schroder Ventures, where he was chief executive.
Other members of Gresham House’s senior management team include Rupert Robinson, a former chief executive and chief investment officer of Schroder & Co., the private banking and wealth management arm of Schroders; Kevin Acton, its finance director, a former senior vice-president at Oaktree Capital Management; and Andrew Hampshire, its chief operating officer.
