Philip Best – Quaero Capital
Philip Best is a founder of Quaero Capital in Geneva, where he launched The Argonaut Fund in 2003. The fund specializes in seeking out stocks across Europe that are little-known and poorly followed because of being too small to interest mainstream investors. Using a strong value-driven philosophy the team aims to identify stocks in the small/micro-cap category that have been mis-priced by the market because of their illiquidity and that stand at a significant discount to intrinsic value. Over the 17 years since launch the fund has given an annualized return of 12.5% with volatility of 14.4%- substantially lower than large cap average over the period. Philip started his career following European small cap stocks at Mercury Asset Management in 1984, launching the Mercury European Income fund in 1986, and later becoming a broker at Enskilda Securities and The Europe Company Ltd, before returning to fund management in 2003.