Highclere International Investors – Small Cap Equity Specialists

Barnacle Geese Against a Stormy Sky painting as background
Highclere International Investors

Small CapEquity Specialists

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About Highclere

Independent investment boutique

Founded 2006

Small cap specialists

Developed markets outside the United States

One singular focused small cap programme

Disciplined fundamental stock selection

Institutional client base

Pension funds, endowments and consultants

Employee owned

Anchored by Silchester International Investors

London headquarters

Client service in Westport, CT

Our Story

Hanging prominently in our London office, "Barnacle Geese Against a Stormy Sky" was painted by Sir Peter Markham Scott in 1939. Son of "Scott of the Antarctic", Peter was a renowned artist, ornithologist and conservationist.

Unusually, the geese are flying towards the storm rather than away from it, which is symbolic given the outbreak of World War II in the year it was painted. This imagery perfectly mirrors Highclere's contrarian investment philosophy.

This nonconformist approach was forged by Ed Makin in 1997 at Wellington Asset Management when he launched an international small cap investment programme during the dot com bubble. Having covered European large caps, he recognized that small caps offered greater opportunities for outsized returns, as they were less efficiently researched and largely overlooked by other analysts.

This paid dividends when the bubble burst and provided an invaluable grounding for the discipline of level-headed valuations matched with reasonable growth assumptions which has been the cornerstone of Highclere's investment philosophy ever since.

Ed decided to continue his international small and midcap investment journey under his own banner in 2006 when he left Wellington to form Highclere. This was done with the backing of Silchester International Investors and their founders with whom Ed had worked in his early asset management years at Morgan Stanley.

The firm has grown over time and seen many market cycles since the dot com bubble, but the investment philosophy remains the same and continues to be implemented by an experienced team of small cap specialists.

We look forward to welcoming guests in our London office and introducing them to the team and Peter Scott's intrepid geese.

Barnacle Geese Against a Stormy Sky painting by Sir Peter Markham Scott

"Barnacle Geese Against a Stormy Sky" by Sir Peter Markham Scott, 1939

Our Investment Philosophy

Stock selection adds value

Rigorous fundamental research drives excess returns in less-followed markets.

Pricing efficiency diminishes with size

Smaller companies receive less analyst coverage, creating information asymmetry.

Best opportunities lie in early stage growth and recovery

We focus on mispriced growth and turnaround situations before consensus recognition.

Contrarian mindset best exploits dislocations

We seek value where sentiment and fundamentals have diverged.

Downside protection from quality focus and valuation discipline

Balance sheet strength and reasonable valuations anchor portfolio construction.

London Based, Global Perspective

Investment Team

Ed has over 35 years' experience of investing in international equity markets and was a founding partner of Highclere in 2006. He is Portfolio Manager of our International Smaller Companies and International SMID Funds and is focused on consistent implementation of the philosophy and process across Highclere's investment strategies. His previous experience was built at Hambros Bank and Morgan Stanley in London, then at Wellington Management in Boston, where he set up and managed International Small and Mid Cap programs there from 1998 to 2005. In his spare time he enjoys woodworking and wildlife photography. Ed speaks Spanish and has strong family ties to Chile and Argentina.

Elliott has 12 years of equity research experience. He first joined Highclere in 2018 from Ruffer Asset Management, where he was a Japan research analyst specializing in technology, media & telecom stocks, and left in March 2022 to pursue a role at Balyasny Asset Management as a Japan specialist. He re-joined Highclere in September 2023 to resume his fundamental research role. Elliott graduated from Cambridge University with a BA (Hons) degree in Geography and speaks conversational Japanese.

Marketing and Client Services

Get in Touch

UK Office

David Gray

Highclere International Investors LLP
12 Manchester Square
London, W1U 3PP
(+44) 20 7258 9830