AB: What we learnt is the need to
be very sure you’re adept at spotting
the trends before everybody else. It
has been a chastening process to go
through and it’s not something that
any of us want to go through again.
Richard Matthewman: Is there
potential to grow the fund?
AB: Yes, definitely. Seneca has bought
into the business at just the right time.
Over the last two or three years, we
have really made our investment
process much more robust and the
performance numbers are starting to
show that.
A group perspective
MT: Ian, from a group perspective,
how do you see what Alan and his
team are doing as complementing the
range of different opportunities that
you’re now able to present?
Ian Currie: The fit is actually quite
incredible. We’ve known the business
and the people for quite a few years.
But as we’ve grown, a large number
of clients want to see different kinds
of investments. We did set up on
day one to look at the PLC market.
We brought Stuart Eaton in as a
shareholder right at the beginning
and we’ve looked at various ways
of trying to get some scale in that,
but it always proved to be difficult.
Venue: Artisan restaurant,
Spinningfields, Manchester
Photos: David Lake
When we got this opportunity it was
a dream for us really; the location was
fantastic, we knew the business, the
size was exactly right, the funds are
big enough to have some scale and yet
there is still the opportunity to grow
them. The feedback we’ve had from
our investor base has been superb. It
may also take us closer towards PLC
transactions for our corporate finance
team. As ever, where we’ve tried
to grow it’s just to get good people
together from different disciplines, but
who could still add things to each of
the parts of the business. What we’ve
found incredible is when you get six
different people with complementary
skill sets, they can bring so much to a
transaction or an opportunity.
Seneca Partners and the people that
we were bringing together. We have
David Warnock as chairman of Seneca
Investment Managers; he’s one of the
industry’s leading investment trust gurus
who originally set up Aberforth. So the
expertise is there and everyone seems
very comfortable working together.
Alex Dymoock: As a group we were
already looking at creating something
from scratch. It was a strong fit for
Alan Burrows: We’ve
always welcomed
clients and investors
to come into the office
and have a chat with
the team about what
we’re doing.
1. Lunch is served
4. Ian Currie
2. Rick Parry
5. Alan Burrows and Chris Hopkinson
3. Melanie Hird and Richard Matthewman
6. Alex Dymock
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