The Merchants Trust


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Meet the Team

Merchants is governed by an independent board of directors and has no employees. Like other investment companies, it outsources management and administration to an investment management company – Allianz Global Investors – and other third party service providers to provide shareholders with an efficient, competitive and cost-effective way to gain wide investment exposure through a single investment vehicle.
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Meet the Board

Meet the Managers

Meet the Allianz Global Investors Team

Meet the Board

The Merchants Trust board is particularly experienced as its directors also sit on the boards of a number of large companies. So as well as providing shareholders with the reassurance of a diligent environment of checks and balances, they also provide the Trust with invaluable knowledge and economic insight.

Colin Clark

Chairman

Joined the board in June 2019 and became Chairman in September 2019. He is Chairman of the boards of AXA Investment Managers UK Ltd and AXA Investment Managers GS Ltd, a non-executive director of AXA IM SA global board and a non-executive director of Rathbone Brothers Plc. Colin has had a 35 year career in asset and wealth management. His most recent executive roles were from 2010 at Standard Life Investments and as an executive director of Standard Life Plc where he was responsible for the Global Client Group. Prior to this he was with Mercury Asset Management, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and S.G.Warburg & Co.

Timon Drakesmith

Non-executive Director, Chairman of the Audit Committee

Joined the board in November 2016. Timon is Chief Financial Officer of Carbon Trust. He was formerly the Chief Financial Officer of Hammerson plc, and prior to that the Finance Director of Great Portland Estates plc and Group Director of Financial Operations of Novar plc. He is a Chartered Accountant and has held previous financial roles at Credit Suisse, Barclays and Deloitte Haskins and Sells.

Lisa Edgar

Non-executive Director

Lisa joined the board on 1 January 2024. She is Chief Customer Officer on the Executive Leadership Team at Saga PLC and is founder of the Big Wind Consulting, a consumer and B2B insight agency, currently part of the Saga Group. Lisa’s career began as a brand planner and market research analyst and she developed customer insight agencies and her own companies in this field over the past twenty years.

Karen McKellar

Non-Executive Director, Senior Independent Director

Joined the board in May 2020. Karen has had a long career as an investment manager at Standard Life, managing the Standard Life Equity Income Investment Trust as well as several large UK equity open-ended funds. Karen is a non-executive director of JPMorgan European Growth & Income PLC.

Mal Patel

Non-executive Director

Joined the board on 1 March 2024. He is Head of Investor Relations at Spirax-Sarco Engineering plc and has held senior roles in IR and corporate development in a number of large UK companies. His early career was as an equities analyst in investment banking. He is a chartered accountant.

Meet the Managers

The Merchants Trust is managed by Simon Gergel who is head of the UK Equity team at AllianzGI and specializes in managing UK equity income portfolios. He is supported by a dedicated team of fund managers and analysts.

Simon Gergel

Lead Portfolio Manager

Simon is Chief Investment Officer, UK Equities and head of the European Value & Income Investment Style Team. He manages The Merchants Trust plc, co-manages the Allianz UK Listed Equity Income Fund, and is deputy portfolio manager on The Brunner Investment Trust and the Allianz UK Listed Opportunities Fund. He joined AllianzGI in April 2006 from HSBC Halbis Partners, where he was Head of Institutional UK Equities, portfolio manager of the HSBC Income Funds and manager of several segregated institutional accounts. Prior to HSBC, Simon was an Executive Director at Phillips & Drew Fund Management Ltd (a subsidiary of UBS), where he spent 14 years as a portfolio manager of UK equity portfolios. Simon is an Executive Director of Allianz Global Investors UK Ltd. Simon graduated from Cambridge University in 1987 with an MA (Hons) Cantab in Mathematics. He is an Associate of the CFA Society of the UK.

Richard Knight

Portfolio Manager

Richard is the lead portfolio manager of the Allianz UK Listed Opportunities Fund, and the co-manager of the Allianz UK Listed Equity Income Fund. He joined AllianzGI in November 2013, initially working in Global Emerging Market Equities. After gaining experience in a number of equity analyst roles, Richard joined the European Value & Income Style Team in March 2018, with a focus on the UK market. Richard specialises in value and income investing and was formerly an analyst covering the European media and telecoms sectors. He graduated from Lincoln College, Oxford University, with a degree in History and Politics, and also holds a masters (with distinction) in Global Economic History from the London School of Economics. Richard is a CFA® charterholder.

Andrew Koch

Portfolio Manager

Andrew Koch joined Allianz Global Investors in October 2023. Andrew has 30 years' experience of value investing in European equities, including as head of the Value & Income Team at Legal & General, and managing the L&G UK Equity Income Fund.


Meet the Allianz Global Investors Team

Stephanie Carbonneil

Managing Director, Head of Investment Trusts

Kirsten Salt

Company Secretary


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