River and Mercantile was formed in 1881 when the River Plate Trust Loan and Agency Company was incorporated. This company administered various companies in South America and was succeeded in 1961 by the River Plate and Mercantile Trust Ltd.

This company subsequently became River and Mercantile Trust Plc in 1962. By 1994 the company had become synonymous with longevity, integrity and product innovation, managing five investment trusts with a total of £400m under management.

Between 1994 and 1996 Pacific Investments acquired a 100 per cent interest in River and Mercantile and recruited a management team from HSBC to launch a new open ended investment division.

The investment trust contracts were sold to leading London based investment houses but Pacific Investments retained the name and focussed on developing the new investment division, a specialist UK equities fund management business, River and Mercantile Investment Management Ltd (RAMIM).

In 1999 RAMIM was floated on the London Stock Exchange and changed its name to Liontrust Asset Management Plc. Since flotation Pacific has placed down its original 75 per cent holding.

Pacific Investments retained the River and Mercantile name, utilising it purely as a holding company for a number of its fund management activities.

River and Mercantile Asset Management LLP (R&M) was formed in 2006.

Our partners

Sir John Beckwith	Mark Johnson	Simon Wilson