Ruffer

Company Profile

Ruffer provides investment management services for institutions, pension funds, charities, financial planners and individual investors, with £21.8 billion under management as of end-May 2024. The firm adopts a ‘safety first’ ethos, with a goal of delivering positive returns, no matter what happens in financial markets. Clients span the full range of high-net-worth individuals, investing up to multiple millions at the top end.

History

Ruffer was founded in 1994 by Jonathan Ruffer, multimillionaire philanthropist; Robert Shirley, 14th Earl Ferrers (then Viscount Tamworth); and Jane Tufnell, current chair of ICG Enterprise Trust.

Tufnell worked at Ruffer for over 20 years. Jonathan Ruffer has been involved in the business since its inception. As part of the firm’s succession strategy, he stepped back from day-to-day management and the executive board in 2020, and from his role managing the firm’s investment strategy and asset allocation in 2023. He continues to chair the business.

Ruffer launched a Channel Islands subsidiary in 1998; it provides a discretionary investment management service in Guernsey. In 2023, Ruffer opened its first permanent office in the US, in New York City.

In his annual letter to investors, Jonathan Ruffer said that 2023 had been a ‘down year’ – Ruffer bought back shares for the first time in 19 years, with the firm’s inflation-linked bonds impacted by rising interest rates and its growth assets in commodities and shares affected by a slowdown in China.

That said, the £3.4 billion Ruffer Portfolio Fund recorded net inflows of £198 million in April 2024, and the £2.9 billion Absolute Return Fund saw £178 million in inflows.

Senior leadership

Chairman: Jonathan Ruffer

Chief Executive: Chris Bacon

Head of Core Fund Management: Luka Gakic

Head of Private Wealth: Bertie Dannatt

Co-CIOs: Neil McLeish and Henry Maxey

Private client services

Ruffer sees itself as ploughing a different furrow to other investment houses, aiming to avoid losses in difficult times more than to take advantage of favourable conditions to achieve peaks of growth. The primary aim is to not lose money over 12 months on any portfolio.

To avoid dependency on the direction of markets, portfolio managers create a balance of offsetting investments in every portfolio, with growth and protection investments held alongside each other, and the allocation to each shifting over time. According to the firm, the growth assets are typically equities, while the protective assets are typically a combination of conventional and index-linked bonds, currencies, derivatives and exposure to commodities.

Ruffer has a strong track record of achieving good returns while limiting drawdowns, for example during times of crisis, such as during the dot.com bubble and the global financial crisis. It also made a successful investment in bitcoin in 2020, though cryptocurrencies are unlikely to form a significant proportion of its investment activities. The investment strategy and asset allocation are set by co-chief investment officers Henry Maxey and Neil McLeish, with a team of senior fund managers and research analysts to support.

Ruffer’s open-ended strategies include: Total Return Fund, Diversified Return Fund, Total Return International and the TM Ruffer Portfolio – specifically for direct clients of Ruffer. The Ruffer Investment Company is an investment company with shares listed on the London Stock Exchange, and which follows the core Ruffer philosophy and strategy.

Locations

London, Edinburgh, Paris, New York and Guernsey