Back this exciting micro-cap investment trust

A boutique asset manager is raising up to £100m for an innovative investment trust that will buy into micro-cap companies.

Many very small firms lose their way once their owners achieve a public listing. Some become disillusioned by the administrative burden and costs. Raising capital for expansion can turn out to be more of a problem than expected. Corporate governance is often weak and succession planning for key management may be non-existent. So for most investors, these micro-cap companies are more trouble than they're worth.

Downing, a boutique asset manager specialising in small companies, is raising up to £100m for an innovative investment trust that will take advantage of this opportunity. The Downing Strategic Micro-Cap Investment Trust will take stakes of between 3% and 25% in 12 to 18 companies with market valuations below £150m. It will follow a private-equity approach, meaning the managers aim to be actively involved in the firms they invest in and have a horizon of three to seven years.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.