Charlie Aitkens’ AIM puts vanilla on the menu with index focus

Charlie and Ellie Aitkin are among few the remaining faces at funds manager AIM. Picture: Jonathan Ng

It was back in March that Margin Call revealed that billionaire Kerry Stokes’ trusted adviser Warwick Smith had been appointed chair of Aitken Investment Management.

As we noted then, it pointed to Stokes’ increased influence at celebrity money manager Charlie Aitken’s investment fund.

The outfit — AIM, as it is abbreviated — had a shocking 2018, posting a 23.8 per cent loss.

That performance was never going to be tolerated by Stokes or his fellow investor Rob Rankin, the former investment banker who was once in James Packer’s inner circle.

The pair each own 20 per cent of the firm and their millions are among the circa $180 million under management.

Two months later comes more change.

Margin Call can reveal Angus Wright — like Rankin, an alumnus of Deutsche Bank — is no longer an AIM portfolio manager.

Wright, who had been in the shop when it opened in 2015, complete with more publicity than a Rebecca Judd active wear collection, suddenly parted ways with the firm this week.

Left at AIM are Aitken, operating officer Les Andrews, and marketer Gemma Yeates. Charlie’s wife Ellie Aitken is watching over things as a director on the board.

That’s a remarkably small headcount for a high conviction fund.

Rather than expand the stock picking team, we’ve heard the telegenic Aitken — we gather after some nudging by Stokes and Rankin — is going to recreate the business as a branded global index fund, with some high-conviction calls on the side.

It’s not clear if AIM will continue to charge a 1.5 per cent management fee on the new, mechanised offering.

For now, the main focus is making sure those 20 per cent plus horror losses don’t happen again.