Fund History
Born in 1963
Background
Greene & Co were stockbrokers who offered institutional broking and private client services. In 1963 the firm set up the Discretionary Fund (one of the first Unit Trusts in the UK) to provide a collective investment scheme for retail clients. This Fund is now called MI Sterling Select Companies Fund.
Greene underwent several changes of ownership:
- Greene & Co was acquired by Greig Middleton & Co which then became Gerrard
- Old Mutual (who owned Capel Cure Sharp) acquired Gerrard in March 2000, in a deal valued at £525m. The new broking entity was called Gerrard Management Services Limited
- In 2003, Barclays Bank acquired the broking business from Old Mutual Plc
Sources: Barclays Archives, Stock Exchange Yearbooks, Banker’s Almanacs and the usual company certification documents.
Fund Management Company
- All throughout, the fund management company remained a separate entity, though there were common directors and shareholders
- The fund management company was acquired by Rights and Issues Investment Trust in 1986
Gerrard is also mentioned in two of the volumes of David Kynaston’s classic multi-volume history of the City of London, as follows:
- The City of London Vol. II: Golden Years 1890-1914 (1996 edition) p.297 where he quotes from a diary entry in 1905 that Gerrard & Reid were at the time ‘small bill brokers’ dealing mainly with Treasury bills and Exchequer bonds.
- The City of London Vol. IV: A Club No More 1945-2000 (2002 edition) p.349 where he discusses briefly Gerrards’ rise from being ‘the minnow in the pack’ to a position where it took over the National Discount Co. in 1969.