american investment company type public industry investment management founded 1873 headquarters edinburgh scotland uk key people dominic neary trust manager parent baillie gifford & co limited website www.saints it.com the scottish american investment company lse scam is a publicly traded investment trust listed on the london stock exchange . it invests in a broad range of uk and international assets . the scottish american investment company is managed by baillie gifford & co limited the edinburgh based investment management partnership . history edit the scottish american investment company p.l.c. also known as saints has been in existence since 1873 which makes it one of the oldest investment trust companies still in existence . saints was initially formed as the scottish american investment company limited by william menzies in march 1873 . menzies was an edinburgh lawyer who had visited the united states on several occasions during the 1860s and was struck during those visits by the wealth of investment opportunities in that young and rapidly growing nation . among the other co founders was dundee and later london financier robert fleming . 1 initially saints invested solely in bonds issued by north american railroad companies . however the investment portfolio broadened out over time to include shares as well as bonds and industrial commercial and public utility companies . saints has survived numerous events and crises in its long history . perhaps the most important in terms of its influence on the future direction of saints was the first world war . this conflict placed great strain on the nation s finances and companies such as saints were required to sell some of their overseas investments and invest the proceeds in uk government debt . when the war ended restrictions on new foreign investment encouraged the company to invest in uk companies . from this point onwards saints investment portfolio has included both uk and overseas investments . as well as adapting its investment portfolio to changing conditions the company has also had to be flexible in how it conducts its affairs . until 1970 the company managed its investments itself but this changed in 1970 when stewart fund managers limited was appointed to manage saints . stewart fund managers and various successor companies acted as saints manager from that point until 31 december 2003 when management of the portfolio passed to baillie gifford & co limited . 2 references edit capitalism in a mature economy financial institutions capital exports and british industry 1870 1939 herald scotland external links edit the scottish american investment company website baillie gifford & co website trust magazine investment trust news expert analysis videos competitions and more from baillie gifford retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title scottish american investment company & oldid 726556474 categories investment trusts of the united kingdomcompanies established in 1873companies listed on the london stock exchangeinvestment management companies of the united kingdomcompanies based in edinburgh1873 establishments in scotlandhidden categories use dmy dates from october 2013use british english from october 2013 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 22 june 2016 at 23 02 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view