London-based global equity boutique Nutshell Asset Management hires British billionaire businessman and philanthropist.

Nutshell Asset Management has appointed Michael Spencer (pictured) as chairman.

The move is accompanied by a significant investment by Lord Spencer’s private investment office, IPGL, into Nutshell’s flagship Growth Fund, along with other strategic commitments, the firm said in a statement.

Lord Spencer, who first backed Nutshell in 2019, has increased his shareholding in the business from 25 per cent to over 40 per cent. He will assume the chairman role immediately.

Nutshell’s Global Growth Fund is a concentrated, multi-factor strategy, targeting rare high-quality growth companies. At the core of the process is a proprietary approach that blends quality, growth, and valuation metrics to identify opportunities and exploit pricing inefficiencies.

In today’s volatile environment, companies and their profile and valuations change quickly. By re-evaluating every listed company twice a month and continually monitoring their relative valuations, Nutshell is able to trade regularly in and out of its chosen portfolio and secure significant additional returns, in contrast to traditional conviction buy and hold managers.

The overall process has enabled the fund to deliver a performance of 14.6 per cent annualised since inception in 2019, and year-to-date returns in 2024 of 23.7 per cent. Fees are competitive at 0.75 per cent per annum, with no performance supplement, the firm continued.

Spencer was described in 2018 as the richest self-made person in the City of London and a "City grandee." He is the founder of NEX Group, a UK-based business focused on electronic markets and post-trade business which was acquired by CME Group in November 2018.

“I backed Nutshell and its founder Mark Ellis when the firm launched and I am delighted I did so,” Spencer said. “Since then, they have delivered excellent returns for me and their investors and their performance speaks for itself. So when the team asked me to become chairman I was delighted to accept and have made a significant additional investment in both the business and the funds alongside my appointment.”

“2024 has been an exciting year for Nutshell; we have seen a significant increase in our AuM, delivered another strong year of performance and in July we took the decision to offer retail and institutional investors a significant reduction in fees, with a saving of up to 75 basis points, to ensure that the widest possible range of investors can now back us and our proprietary model,” Mark Ellis, founder and chief executive officer of Nutshell, said.