Tributes to Hamish Buchan, investment trust icon

Hamish Buchan: long-standing champion (pic: AIC)

Tributes have been paid to Hamish Buchan, one of Scotland’s leading investment trust analysts, who has died at the age of 80.

He spent 30 years at Edinburgh based stockbroker Wood Mackenzie, where his team was consistently voted the UK’s highest-rated for investment trust analysis.

He was often quoted in the media which drew on his expertise. He was a director of many investment trusts, including Personal Assets Trust, Aberforth Smaller Companies, Templeton Emerging Markets, The Scottish Investment Trust, Patria Private Equity Trust, JPMorgan American Investment Trust and Shires Income.

He was also a director of the Association of Investment Companies, from 2001 to 2011, including two years as chairman when he steered the association through an important industry milestone, the AIC’s victory at the European Court of Justice regarding VAT on management fees.

Buchan was introduced to the world of finance by his Scots-born father, who ran Bank of London South America in the remote town of Punta Arenas in Chile’s far south. “Farming was a big thing out there. I used to spend a lot of time on sheep farms; one had access to a horse,” he told an interviewer in 2006.

He spent his teenage years as a boarder at Dollar Academy and never returned to Chile since going out to visit his parents during a school vacation in 1959 – partly for fear of being “roped into doing Chilean national service”.

Instead he developed a lifelong association with Scotland’s financial sector, beginning his career with Scottish Widows in the 1960s before his switch to Wood Mackenzie.

“Hamish was a long-standing champion of investment trusts,” said AIC CEO Richard Stone.

“Through his work at the AIC and as a leading analyst and director, Hamish’s contribution to the industry was exceptional. He was a passionate and committed supporter who achieved so much for investment trusts.”

AIC communications director Annabel Brodie-Smith said: “Hamish will always be an investment trust legend. His knowledge, devotion and tireless work for the investment trust industry is unrivalled.

“It was a pleasure to work with such a kind and funny man. He never wasted any time on the phone but if you had a problem, he had all the time in the world. He will be very much missed.”

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