Cantillon: Small remains beautiful for Williams

Gervais Williams has always been one of the canniest investors in small market cap companies, mainly in the UK, but also in the Republic. During his 17 years with the Gartmore Group, the veteran fund manager regularly popped up on the share register of Irish plcs. In the five years to 2005 he was a darling of investors as his dedicated Irish Growth Fund rode the Celtic Tiger with returns of 172 per cent.

Things certainly got a lot tougher in Ireland later, but Williams, now managing director at the Miton Group, has done well. He was named as Investor of the Year by Grant Thornton at its Quoted Company Awards in both 2009 and 2010 in the UK.

Williams, who grew up on a farm in Abergavenny in Wales, said on the sidelines of yesterday's Investec annual investor conference that he believed that after the credit boom, the world was experiencing a "growth hangover".

"Smaller businesses don't find it easy to grow but can often grow irrespective of the economy at large," he said in an interview to be broadcast in this week's Inside Business and Technology Podcast from The Irish Times .

Williams stock-picked Fyffes and DCC as his favourites in Ireland. He said Fyffes met his investment criteria because of its ability to generate cash and grow income. As a result, he said, his fund had held a significant position in it prior to its merger with Chiquita, which sent its share price surging. Willliams said the merger was "exciting", and offered lots of cost synergies. But, ever cautious, Williams said he'd taken some of his money off the table, as there was some work ahead for the company in terms delivering those synergies.

DCC was his second pick. “Look at the record, what a superb business over the long term and the short term,” Williams enthused.

For Williams, small remains beautiful.