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HIM Capital Limited is a specialist fund manager with an established track record of managing financials funds. HIM Capital was formerly called Hiscox Investment Management prior to the management buyout of the business from Hiscox Limited, the property casualty insurance group. Hiscox retains a minority shareholding in the company with the balance owned by the management. HIM Capital has been managing financial funds since 1993 and its funds have all outperformed their benchmarks since launch.
HIM Capital manages focused portfolios, adopting a bottom-up, stock picking approach. Fundamental research analysis is carried out
in house, using specialist sell-side broker research and through close links in the financials services industry built up over many years.
In the majority of cases company managements are met prior to a purchase and an active dialogue is maintained. The fund managers
travel frequently reflecting the global nature of the portfolios. Regular contact with management is of even greater importance with
reference to our emerging market investments, where external research can be limited and domestic macro-economic sentiment
can drive share performance. The portfolios have a quality bias as the managers prefer to buy and hold stocks rather than adopt a
short term trading strategy. This can impact relative performance in sharply rising markets, but over the longer-term has proven to
generate superior returns for shareholders.
The fund managers focus on certain core principles, including insider ownership, a strong track record of assessing balance sheet
risk, and ample access to deposit funding for banks. Investments are made in smaller capitalisation stocks, particularly in developed
markets, where their larger peers tend to be more efficiently priced due to extensive analyst coverage and access to management
is more limited. However in emerging markets there is a greater focus on larger companies which tend to offer stronger franchises,
improved access to senior management and greater trading liquidity.
Each portfolio maintains an active watchlist enabling the fund managers to capture opportunities as they occur. Coupled with a focus
on stock-specific research, a variety of both external and internal valuation measures are used to time buying and selling of stocks,
in addition to an extensive internal database of financials and economic statistics to highlight opportunities. Overall, there are more
than 500 financial sector stocks which are followed, although a smaller number are on the watchlist.
The composition of benchmarks is largely disregarded by the managers and consequently tracking error is expected. They do not
try to time markets and as such the portfolios are usually fully invested.
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Alec Foster is the chairman of HIM Capital. He manages the Hiscox Insurance Portfolio Fund in conjunction with Nick Martin. Alec has worked in the insurance business for over 40 years, first as an insurance broker in the London market and for Hiscox for 31 years. Prior to the buyout he was managing director of Hiscox Investment Management and had been group investment officer until 2005. He launched the Hiscox Insurance Portfolio Fund in 1998. He was chairman of Universal Salvage plc, the listed insurance related vehicle service company, prior to its acquisition by the US company Copart in 2007. He was also a director of Midas Capital Partners, the Liverpool based fund manager and is a Trustee Director of St Andrew’s Healthcare.
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Mark Stacpoole Mark Stacpoole is the managing director of HIM Capital. Mark has spent over 25 years in the financial services industry
and the past ten years in the asset management business. Mark started his career in capital markets at Morgan
Grenfell in 1983 and in 1988 joined Kleinwort Benson where he was a director of corporate finance for nine years. In
2000, he joined a start-up financial services group EO as a managing director. In 2002, he joined a private equity group,
as managing director responsible for fund raising. He joined HIM Capital in 2004 and became Managing Director in
2007.
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John Yakas is the manager of the Hiscox Far Eastern and European Financial Funds. John has worked in the financial services
industry for over 20 years and has been with HIM Capital for the past five years. He has been involved with the Hiscox Far
Eastern Financial Fund since its launch in 1996. He has also been responsible for the Hiscox European Financial Fund for the
past three years. He has held a number of positions within the banking and financial research industry prior to becoming the
Head of Asian Research at Fox-Pitt, Kelton in 1995 and launching their office in Hong Kong in 2000. He has been at HIM
Capital since 2003 and became a Director of the Hiscox Far Eastern Financial Fund and a consultant to HIM Capital.
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Nick Brind has 15 years investment experience across a broad range of asset classes including UK equities, closed end
funds, fixed-income securities, European financials, private equity and derivatives having previously worked at
New Star Asset Management, Exeter Asset Management and Capel-Cure Myers. Prior to joining HIM Capital, Nick
was at New Star where he managed a high-income financials fund investing in the equity and fixed-income securities
of European financial companies and also co-managed a mid-market private equity fund-of-funds.
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Nick Martin is the co-manager of the Hiscox Insurance Portfolio Fund, working closely with Alec Foster. He has worked in the financial services industry for 10 years including seven years at HIM Capital. He is a qualified chartered accountant and obtained a first class honours degree, Bsc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics at the London School of Economics. Nick developed a broad knowledge of the insurance sector at the chartered accountants, Mazars Neville Russell, where he specialised in audit and consultancy work for insurance companies and brokers.
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George Barrow is an investment analyst working closely with John Yakas on the Hiscox European Financial and the Hiscox Far Eastern Financial Funds. He joined HIM Capital in February 2008 and has completed his IMC. George holds a Masters degree in International Studies from SOAS where he graduated with merit.
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