Montanaro European Smaller Companies Fund
The Fund aims to achieve capital growth in excess of the MSCI Europe Small Cap Index by investing in European and UK smaller quoted companies, with a particular focus on those with a market capitalisation below that of the largest company in the benchmark index.
The full investment objective and policy for the Fund is stated in the Fund’s prospectus.
Why invest in European SmallCap?
We believe that every investment portfolio should have some exposure to SmallCap, primarily owing to:
- The ‘SmallCap Effect’ – the proven long-term outperformance of smaller companies versus their LargeCap peers*
- A wealth of choice, with more than 2,300 SmallCap companies in Europe
- Under-researched, making for an inefficient market ripe with opportunity for those who invest in thorough analysis
- Portfolio diversification - helping to lower portfolio risk
*Source: see research from Dimson & Marsh
How we invest
Our investment process has remained unchanged for many years:
- We invest exclusively in “Quality Growth” companies
- We generate new ideas ourselves (no brokers)
- We do thorough research ourselves, which includes detailed analysis and company site visits
- We integrate ESG fully into company analysis
- We take a conservative approach to valuation
How to invest
The Fund is available through various platforms:
- Aegon
- Allfunds
- AJ Bell
- Aviva
- Barclays
- FE Direct
- FNZ Wealth
- Hargreaves Lansdown
- Interactive Investor
- MFEX
- Pershing Nexus
- SEB
- Transact
Alternatively, find out about the other ways of accessing the Fund.
Fund managers
Fund Manager
George Cooke
Professional
George graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2005 with an undergraduate degree in Management Studies. He spent a further year of study there at the end of which he was awarded a Masters (with Distinction) in Corporate Strategy & Governance.
Immediately following this, he joined the graduate scheme at Aon Benfield (formerly Aon Re). Having completed this scheme, George settled as an Analyst within the ReSolutions department where he specialised in assisting with the capital and runoff issues of insurance and reinsurance companies. During his time at the company, George received a Diploma in Insurance. He is also a CFA Charterholder.
After three and a half years with Aon Benfield, George joined Montanaro in July 2010. He is the Fund Manager of the European Income Fund, the European Smaller Companies Fund and the European Smaller Companies Trust. Additionally, he has Analyst responsibilities for the Healthcare and Insurance sectors.
Qualifications
- BA (Hons) in Management Studies, University of Nottingham (2005)
- MA (with Distinction) in Corporate Strategy & Governance, University of Nottingham (2006)
- Exams passed for Diploma in Insurance
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
Personal
When away from the office, George enjoys running and cycling. He completed the London marathon in 2014 and plans to try l’etape du tour…one day. A yearly trip or two to the Alps or Canada allows him to refresh his snowboarding ‘skills’, with his enthusiasm almost making up for any apres-ski induced balance issues.
Backup Fund Manager
Charles Montanaro
Professional
Charles graduated with an honours degree in Anthropology from Durham University in 1976. He spent four years in industry before joining Merrill Lynch in 1980 as a private client broker in London. He joined Dean Witter Reynolds in 1984 and Drexel Burnham Lambert in 1987 as a Senior Vice President where, in both cases, he was their top institutional broker in the UK, joining the high-yield bond department in 1989. In 1990, Charles joined MMG Patricof (now Apax Partners) as a Director of investment banking working with UK private and public smaller companies.
In August 1991, he founded Montanaro to specialise in analysing and investing in quoted European smaller companies on behalf of leading institutions. He has since launched and managed several funds and established a strong track record. In addition, he has served on the Boards of two public smaller companies. He was appointed a Director of the Montanaro European Smaller Companies plc on 12 January 2012.
Qualifications
- BA (Hons) Anthropology, Durham University (1976)
Personal
Charles, with his inexhaustible supply of energy, is rooting for Arsenal when he isn't motivating his own team.
A pity his enthusiastic approach doesn't work with fish. Despite numerous attempts, he has yet to catch a trout, let alone a salmon. Although he did catch a piranha during his first trip up the Amazon and is now known as "the white Huaorani" following his second adventure in search of undiscovered tribes in the jungles of Ecuador.
Having survived his first London marathon in a vain attempt to get fit, he spent time in the jungles of Papua with the stone-age Korowai and Kombai who had not seen a white man before. Although practising cannibals, he was clearly too tough for their taste and survived the adventure – narrowly avoiding a native attempting to shoot his bow and arrow first and ask questions later…
In search of truly undiscovered people, he was temporarily kidnapped in Mamberamo by an unknown tribe where he found that not all natives are friendly. Undeterred, he went hunting with the Yanomami in Venezuela and the Embera of Panama at the end of 2007 where he got eaten alive by mosquitos and nasty little nigwas and leeches. In 2008, with his wife to be Jane, he tried his hand at climbing steep hills firstly in Kashmir and then in Bhutan where he met the new King before climbing 18,000 feet to see what altitude sickness felt like. An unexpected 40 kilometre hike in the snow (abandoned by a guide who was lost) nearly ended badly.
He survived running the Bulls of Pamplona as a pre-cursor to further exploits among indigenous tribes. These included walking safaris with the San people in Botswana and fishing with Australian aborigines. A return trip in 2009 to the jungles of Irian Jaya (the Korowai) saw him going native and returning with a stick through his nose - much to the disapproval of his wife (since removed – the stick that is). In 2011, Charles explored the jungles of Sumatra with the Mentawai.
In 2013, Charles founded and largely funded Tribal Survival, a charity aimed at improving the lives of indigenous people living in remote jungles by providing access to Western doctors and medicine. In 2014, a five-year programme was initiated with the assistance of the World Health Organisation to eradicate Lymphatic Filariasis (elephantiasis) among the Korowai.
For a change, Charles chose to spend time with indigenous people living in colder climates. In 2017, he spent a fortnight hunting on dog sleds with a remote community of Inuit in Kulusuk (Greenland). 2018 saw him living with the Nenet, reindeer herdsmen in Yamal (North West Siberia). In both cases, temperatures below minus 30 - 40 degrees were not uncommon and hairs in his nostrils froze.
November 2019 saw a return to the Korowai of West Papua where humidity was almost 100 degrees. Not sure which is worse. Once again, he returned with a stick through his nose but also an earring - his wife even less impressed. Where to next?
Fund documents
Factsheets
- May 2020 - GBP
- May 2020 - EUR
- May 2020 - EUR (FR)
- April 2020 - GBP
- April 2020 - EUR
- April 2020 - EUR (FR)
- March 2020 - GBP
- March 2020 - EUR
- March 2020 - EUR (FR)
- February 2020 - GBP
- February 2020 - EUR
- February 2020 - EUR (FR)
- January 2020 - GBP
- January 2020 - EUR
- January 2020 - EUR (FR)
- December 2019 - GBP
- December 2019 - EUR
- December 2019 - EUR (FR)
- November 2019 - GBP
- November 2019 - EUR
- November 2019 - EUR (FR)
- October 2019 - GBP
- October 2019 - EUR
- October 2019 - EUR (FR)
- September 2019 - GBP
- September 2019 - EUR
- September 2019 - EUR (FR)
- August 2019 - GBP
- August 2019 - EUR
- August 2019 - EUR (FR)
- July 2019 - GBP
- July 2019 - EUR (FR)
- June 2019 - GBP
- June 2019 - EUR
- June 2019 - EUR (FR)
- May 2019 - GBP
- May 2019 - EUR
- May 2019 - EUR (FR)
- April 2019 - GBP
- April 2019 - EUR
- April 2019 - EUR (FR)
Commentary
KIIDs
- KIID - EUR Accumulation (EN)
- KIID - EUR Accumulation (IS)
- KIID - EUR Accumulation (DE)
- KIID - EUR Accumulation (SE)
- KIID - EUR Accumulation (CH)
- KIID - EUR Accumulation (FR)
- KIID - EUR Accumulation (NL)
- KIID - EUR Accumulation (ES)
- KIID - EUR (EN)
- KIID - EUR (IS)
- KIID - EUR (CH)
- KIID - EUR (SE)
- KIID - EUR (DE)
- KIID - EUR (FR)
- KIID - EUR (NL)
- KIID - EUR (ES)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Accumulation (EN)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Accumulation (CH)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Accumulation (NL)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Distribution (EN)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Distribution (IS)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Distribution (CH)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Distribution (SE)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Distribution (FR)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Distribution (NL)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Distribution (ES)
- KIID - EUR Institutional Distribution (DE)
- KIID - GBP (EN)
- KIID - GBP (CH)
- KIID - GBP Institutional (EN)
- KIID - GBP Institutional (CH)
- KIID - SEK Accumulation (EN)
- KIID - SEK Accumulation (CH)
- KIID - SEK Accumulation (SE)
- KIID -USD (EN)
- KIID -USD (CH)
Annual and Interim Reports
Application Form
Corporate Documents
Contact our sales team
Professional
Tom joined Montanaro in 2009. After 2 years in the research team he moved over to Business Development becoming Head of the team in 2016. Tom covers wealth managers and multi-managers in the UK and the Channel Islands.
Qualifications
- BSc (Hons) in Mathematics with French, St Andrews University (2007)
Personal
Tom is married and lives in South West London with his wife, daughter and crazy dog Clover. Whenever possible he can be found on the golf course or watching cricket but more likely changing nappies or chasing his dog around Richmond Park.
Professional
Christian graduated from the University of Grenoble in 1981, where he studied Politics & Law. His research on Scottish politics took him to Scotland where, in 1986, he joined Martin Currie Investment Management as an Investment Manager covering Europe and Asia. In 1988 he joined British Linen Bank, part of the Bank of Scotland Group, where he was in charge of European investments.
In 1990, Christian joined Edinburgh Fund Managers ("EFM") where he was responsible for managing the European Unit Trust and marketing in Canada and the US. After eight years at EFM, in 1998 Christian joined Kempen Capital Management (UK) where he was involved in the marketing and management of their SRI funds and also with marketing in Europe and Canada.
Christian is trilingual in French, English and Spanish.
Christian joined Montanaro in July 2006 and became Head of Client Relationship Management in 2011 and Chairman of the ESG Committee since 2013.
Christian has responsibility for Scotland, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.
Qualifications
- Politics & Law degree, University of Grenoble (1981)
- Fluent in French, English and Spanish
Personal
As a fund manager, Christian sometimes took contrarian views. This may be why he left the South of France to move to cold and wet Scotland. Christian speaks French and Spanish and on moving to Scotland, even took (and passed!) an O-Grade in Gaelic.
He likes French and Italian wines and is currently learning Italian so he can visit the various producers during his holidays. For some years now, Christian has imported his favourite wines and champagne into the UK and he is often asked to present them at tasting sessions. His other great interests are Scottish history, literature, cinema and running (when the Scottish weather is not too bad). He also spends some time serving the French community in Scotland as an elected councillor.
He plans to go to the Gaelic college in Skye to improve his Gaelic. He loves the West coast of Scotland, one of the most beautiful parts of the world, when it does not rain and there are no midges!
Professional
Henrik completed an MSc in finance and business administration after studying at the University of Linkoping in Sweden and in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
He started his professional career in 2000 at Merrill Lynch where he worked in equity research covering software and IT services companies. In 2001 he joined Lehman Brothers, where he spent 3 years as an Analyst, working on the European banks team.
As the lead Analyst on the Nordic banks he was writing company, sector and thematic reports. After that he spent 4 years at KBW and 3 years at Morgan Stanley, where he besides being the lead Analyst on Nordic banks also covered Emerging Market banks (Turkey and Russia) and wrote European banks strategy reports.
During his time as a bank Analyst he was voted the number one ranked Nordic banks Analyst in Europe. At Morgan Stanley the team also reached the number one position in Europe.
Henrik has responsibility for the Nordic region.
Qualifications
- M.Sc in Finance and Business Administration, University of Linkoping in Sweden and in St. Gallen, Switzerland
- Bilingual in Swedish and English
Personal
After growing up on the West coast of Sweden and living in Switzerland for a year and a half his biggest interests are boating and skiing. These days that boils down to a couple of weeks skiing per year and a little bit of boating in the summer. There is still that dream of spending a season in the Alps. Besides sports Henrik likes to travel. The perfect dream holiday would be to combine these two interest and go skiing in Alaska.
Professional
Ed graduated from Durham University with a 2:1 BA (Hons) degree in Theology. His thesis was on the Ethics of Genetic Engineering. He began his career in asset management as a Portfolio Manager with Newton Investment Management, before moving to Standard Life following the acquisition of his department. Ed joined Montanaro in 2014 and is Deputy Chairman of the ESG Committee. He has been heavily involved in the further integration of ESG in the investment process, culminating in the launch of the Montanaro Better World Fund. Ed directs the impact analysis of companies within the Better World Fund across the Investment Team and writes the award-winning Better World Fund Impact Report, as well as Montanaro's ESG Handbook and Montanaro’s market commentaries.
Qualifications
• Durham University, Theology BA (Hons) 2:1
• CFA Institute, Certificate in ESG Investing
• The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment Diploma
Personal
Away from work, Ed is kept busy looking after his young family. An avid reader, Ed likes to relax by working his way through an ever-growing reading list. He is interested in the development of new technologies, particularly “AI” and in his spare time has completed Stanford Professor Andrew Ng’s course 'AI for Everyone'. When he can, Ed likes to travel, a highlight being a trip across the Middle East to Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Israel in 2005.
Professional
Chris graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a degree in Banking & Financial Management in 2013. Born and bred in Manchester, Chris quickly made the move to London to embark on a career in Asset Management, joining Neuberger Berman as Performance & Risk Analyst.
It didn’t take long for Chris to decide he wanted to work in distribution and in 2014 joined Goldman Sachs Asset Management to support both their wholesale and institutional sales teams within EMEA.
Keen to progress into a client facing role, Chris joined Columbia Threadneedle in 2015 as Business Development Manager, tasked with developing, growing and maintaining relationships with a panel of financial advisers, life co’s and key strategic partners across the U.K.
Chris joined Montanaro in 2018 and is responsible for targeting U.K. Advisory clients.
Qualifications
- BA (Hons) Banking & Financial Management, Sheffield Hallam University.
Personal
Away from work, Chris sits on the members committee at The Lansdowne Club in Mayfair and is constantly looking at ways to improve the experience for its members. Chris is an avid Manchester United fan (yes – one of the few actually from Manchester) and goes to watch the games as often as he can. Chris enjoys the odd game of 5-a-side but feels he is more attuned to playing golf these days. He is also a big horse racing fan with his favourite meet being the Ebor Festival at York.
Chris loves to travel but rarely plans ahead, choosing instead to book last-minute flights to random destinations. He would like to become fluent in French one day and spent the odd summer during university working at Disneyland Paris. Unfortunately we are yet to find a photo of him dressed as Mickey Mouse.
Professional
Adam started his professional career in the investment industry in 2012, where he worked as a Private Client Stockbroker in London dealing with high net worth individuals and worked on both discretionary and advisory portfolios.
In 2014, he joined Spring Capital Partners as a Fund Sales Manager predominately covering London and other parts of the UK. This was followed by two years at Franklin Templeton Investment and one year at BNY Mellon Investment covering London and the South East of England.
Adam joined Montanaro in 2019 as an Investment Sales Manager and is responsible for clients within London and the South of England.
Personal
In his younger years, along with other traditional sporting activities, Adam was a keen surfer and climber which he enjoyed doing at numerous locations around the UK and Europe. Adam was also a gymnast and regularly competed in regional and national championships in the UK. Unfortunately we are yet to see him walking on his hands in the office!
These days he prefers a calmer style of life and can often be found on the golf course or out socialising with family and friends.
