Cartesian celebrates first birthday with £105m mandate win

Cartesian Capital, the Edinburgh based investment boutique setup in conjunction with Resolution Asset Management, is celebrating its first anniversary with a £105m UK equity mandate from Northern Trust Global Investments.

The £105m mandate will be managed by Cartesian founding partners Andrew Kelly and David Stevenson. The pair, who have worked together for over 10 years and are known for their stock-picking skills, will run the segregated mandate to a brief similar to that of their UK Opportunities Fund which has produced a return of over 28.% in its first year and attracted over £70m in retail assets. The fund is also A-rated by Forsyth-OBSR.

Launched in December 2005, Cartesian currently manages in the region of £200m for a combination of retail, institutional and hedge fund investors.

David Stevenson said: “We are delighted that our objectives of a year ago have all been achieved. We have grown assets under management substantially and produced outperformance in our long only and hedge products, placing them near the top of their respective league tables. We have attracted retail and institutional clients into both, and have just secured our first major segregated mandate which is particularly pleasing so early in our development.”

Andrew Kelly said: “We have had a fantastic first year at Cartesian and are pleased with how successful the relationship with Resolution Asset Management has been. The infrastructure support they provide us with has allowed us to focus fully on investment performance. As a business Cartesian is now successfully established and we are confident about the prospects for future development and growth.”

Jonathan Polin, Sales & Marketing Director of Resolution Asset Management concluded: “Launched at the very end of 2005, Cartesian Capital was the second of our boutique joint ventures to go live. Chosen for their proven stockpicking ability, David and Andrew have done a tremendous job over the last year and the Northern Trust Global Investments mandate is recognition of that. It is also further confirmation that the boutique joint venture model the business has adopted is working. I am sure we will see Cartesian and the other boutiques picking up more mandates in 2007.”