Miton's Jane: How I restructured the largest illiquid portfolios of my career

Miton's David Jane has revealed the extent of the challenge he faced following his takeover of the group's multi-asset funds from previous manager Martin Gray last year.

Jane (pictured) joined Miton in June 2014, when the firm acquired Darwin Investment Management, and took over the multi-asset range from Gray, who has now joined Coram Asset Management. Gray is famously bearish on many asset classes, which Jane said led to the build-up of large positions in illiquid areas, such as Japanese investment trusts. "The former manager had an absence of positive views and had run out of places to put the money. This left the portfolios in a challenging position; they were the most illiquid portfolios of their size that I had ever seen," Jane said. "A lot o...