History

1991

City of London Investment Management was founded in 1991 by Barry Olliff. The company was formed out of the London-based operations of Olliff & Partners PLC (O&P) that had been founded by Barry in 1987. O&P was an agency stockbroker and corporate finance boutique specialising in the U.K. investment trust sector. As part of the brokerage research effort, the firm identified significant pricing inefficiencies particularly in those funds giving emerging markets exposure.

Barry determined the most appropriate way to capitalise on these inefficiencies was from an investment management standpoint and launched City of London Unit Trust Managers, the predecessor of City of London Investment Management in 1991. The first active emerging markets product, The Emerging Markets Country Trust, was launched in September 1991.

1994

In 1994, building on the success of the U.K. business, the firm launched a U.S. institutional emerging markets strategy for tax-exempt investors. The firm registered with the SEC as an investment advisor in April of 1994. A Canadian marketing presence was also established that year. Over the following six years, a number of institutional funds for North American clients were launched as emerging markets benchmarks were developed in the industry.

2000

In 2000, a third office, City of London Investment Management (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. was established to enable on-the-ground research and trading of the Asian portion of our investment universe.

2005

In 2005, we extended our emerging markets expertise into the frontier markets by launching the Frontier Emerging Markets strategy.

2009

In 2009, we applied our knowledge of Closed-End Funds around the world to the development of a Global Closed-End Fund strategy, using a similar investment process as in our Emerging Markets Closed-End Fund strategy.

2014

In 2014, we expanded and diversified our Global CEF strategy via development of as Opportunistic Value CEF strategy.

2022

In 2022, we launched a Global Developed product for U.S. institutions.