Background: Following on from the appointment of Gresham House Asset Management (GHAM) as the company’s investment manager in March (see here), earlier this week, SEC announced that Ken Wotton, Managing Director and head of the GHAM Public Equity investment team has been appointed lead fund manager and will work alongside current fund manager, Adam Khanbhai. Ken is also a member of the GHAM Investment Committee. Jeff Harris will be leaving the business to pursue other opportunities. Investec view: Ken Wootton has a wealth of experience and an impressive long-term track record of investing in UK smaller companies. The LF Gresham House UK Micro Cap Fund (launched in May 2009) is ranked in the top quartile of the IA UK Smaller Companies Sector over 3, 5 and 10 years and has delivered a total return of 359.2% over 10 years, ahead of the 191.8% return from the IA UK Smaller Companies sector. The LF Gresham House UK Multi Cap Income Fund (launched in June 2017) is also ranked in the top quartile of IA UK Equity Income Funds over 1, 2 and 3 years. The company will continue to benefit from the experience and challenge provided by the Investment Committee. The IC is chaired by Tony Dalwood and other members include Bruce Carnegie-Brown, Tom Teichman, Graham Bird and Richard Staveley. The investment team will also benefit from a wide network of industry contacts which will aid idea generation, investment evaluation, due diligence and risk management. We are supportive of the changes and believe that depth of resource of the Gresham House Public Equity team alongside the wider private equity team and the extensive experience provided by the Investment Committee should generate shareholder value over the long-term and help to reinvigorate the performance record of the company. The manager will continue to run a high conviction and concentrated portfolio of UK smaller companies. We like the strategy of applying private equity investment processes to public markets in order to drive strategic, operational or management initiatives and identifying attractive investments. We believe that this will be enhanced by a focus on taking larger and more influential equity stakes in smaller companies. A discount of 19% provides a wide margin of safety for investors and we remain comfortable with our Buy recommendation.