Harry Nimmo, one of the most successful investors in UK smaller companies over the past three decades, is predicting a recovery in UK smaller companies within six months. And, contemplating his retirement from asset manager Abrdn at the end of 2022, he’s sure that his top holding is a long-term winner.

Nimmo, 65, launched his UK smaller companies fund in 1997 and has delivered an impressive average return of 12.6 per cent a year over the 25 years since. He did this by tapping into the success of companies including Asos, Fevertree Drinks, Aveva, JD Sports Fashion, Computacenter, Diploma and Safestore Holdings, often getting in when they launched on the stock market and selling out at the right time.

“Our annualised return is 3 per cent better than our benchmark, which in turn is 3 per cent better than UK large caps,” he says. “We managed to generate that through two significant bear markets — the dotcom bust and banking crisis.”