While I’m not a fan of sticking growth or value labels on managers, we can safely consider the Baillie Gifford team running two-thirds of International Growth’s (VWIGX) portfolio “Growth with a capital G” investors. They aim to buy “exceptional growth” companies.
While growth stocks fueled by an artificial intelligence boom have dominated the U.S. stock markets for the past two years, that hasn’t translated into foreign markets. So, I recently sat down with Baillie Gifford’s Thomas Coutts, portfolio manager on International Growth, to talk about the fund, their approach and the state of growth investing. (Okay, we sat down virtually, as Baillie Gifford is based in Edinburgh.)
Coutts was more than generous with his time and responses. So, this article may be worth printing out and reading over a cup of coffee or tea.
If you’re looking for the Cliff’s Notes version, here are the key points: