Baillie Gifford Funds Review

Edinburgh-based fund manager Baillie Gifford has earned a reputation with financial advisers and investors as one of the best fund management firms in the industry. Their hands-on, growth-seeking approach to investing, which they term ‘Actual Investing’, has resonated with investors Globally, with 60% of the £198 billion of assets under their management from customers based outside of the UK.  

They are a globally well-regarded wealth management firm with their range of funds and investment trusts widely considered by financial advisers as some of the most attractive investment opportunities on the market. But do their funds and investment trusts warrant the high praise?

In this report, we analysed all 33 Baillie Gifford unit trust funds and their 11 Investment over the recent 1, 3 & 5 years and compared their performance to every other competing fund within the same sector to identify how competitive their funds have performed. Based on their performance, we provided each of their funds with an overall performance rating between 1 and 5 stars.

From this analysis we identified a history of continuous top performance from many of their funds, supporting their stellar reputation and standing as one of the best fund management firms in the industry. 

Baillie Gifford Active Fund Management

Baillie Gifford was an early investor into some of the world’s most valuable private and public tech companies, boasting a roster of portfolio companies that includes unicorns from nearly all generations in modern tech, including everything from Amazon, Google and Salesforce to Tesla, Airbnb, Spotify, Lyft, Palantir and even SpaceX.

They have an extensive history of investing across geographies, with one of its first and most successful investments coming from an early entry into Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba.

Baillie Gifford has a reputation for actively building and managing some of the best performing funds across different regions and is widely respected as one of the top fund managers in the world. In our fund manager league table, which ranks 81 fund management firms based on the performance of over 2,100 funds; Baillie Gifford ranked 1st with the highest proportion of funds under their management that received a top-performing 4 and 5-star rating.

Baillie Gifford Asset Management

Baillie Gifford is unique in the UK in being a large-scale investment business that has remained an independent private partnership.

Traditionally, the corporate structure of large-scale investment firms warrants many to bolster their sales and profits through mergers and acquisitions, but unlike many of their peers, Baillie Gifford has remained a privately-owned partnership since their launch 110 years ago.

Being independent, private and wholly owned by working partners has sheltered Baillie Gifford from the business demands of external shareholders and enabled them to keep a structure that is more focused on the quality of their products. Many of their funds have continuously outperformed same sector rivals, a primary reason why statistical orientated advisers and investors recognise Baillie Gifford as one of the best fund management firms in the industry. 

Baillie Gifford Fund Performance Summary

Over half of Baillie Gifford funds consistently outperformed at least three quarters of competing funds within the same sectors over the recent 1, 3 & 5 years. 

Baillie Gifford manages 6 funds that ranked 1st in their sectors for growth over the past 5 years. Combined, these 6 funds outperformed all 310 competing funds within their respective sectors.

The Baillie Gifford American fund has achieved the highest growth returns from all of their funds. This fund is classified within the IA North America sector alongside 117 competing funds. Over the past 1, 3 & 5 years this fund ranked first in the sector with growth of 47.60%, 125.82%, and 248.25%.

The worst performing Baillie Gifford fund over the past 5 years was the Baillie Gifford British Smaller Companies fund, which ranked 37th out of 46 funds in its sector with 5 year returns of 7.01%.

Over the past 12 months, 9 of Baillie Gifford’s 11 Investment Trusts performed better than at least 75% of their peers within the same sector.

In the fund managers league table, which was compiled from a review of 2,123 funds and 81 fund management firms, Baillie Gifford ranked 1st with the highest average of 4 and 5-star performing funds.

Henry Temple-Baxter

Henry Temple-Baxter is the founder of Investments for Expats and is CISI Level 4 qualified. A long-term expat himself, he has lived and worked in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City. He set up the firm in 2018 to give UK expats fee-only, transparent advice on pensions, tax and investing abroad.

This guide is general information, not personal advice. Tax rules can change and their effect depends on your circumstances. Capital at risk.