Mr Jourdan, who carved what is now Amati Global Investors out of Noble Fund Managers in January 2010, said he is “strongly in favour” of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government’s fiscal policy, which will see massive public spending cuts in the next few years.
He said: “We are taking part in an experiment and nobody really knows what the result will be. We can be reasonably confident it will be a painful experiment.
“I am expecting unemployment to rise uncomfortably. I am expecting consumer spending to come under pressure.
“But do I expect us to come out of the other side of it in a good place? Yes, I do.”
Mr Jourdan said his reticence is based on worries there will not be sufficient private sector growth to offset the state spending cuts.
“We will have growth but it won’t be as strong as we want it and possibly too late,” he said.
“I want our geographic exposure to be wider spread and not focused on the UK.”
His two key funds, the CF Amati UK Smaller Companies Fund and Amati Venture Capital Trust, have built stakes in Asian Citrus, which sells oranges in China.
Mr Jourdan has also invested in top-end soy sauce manufacturer China Food, which he hopes will benefit from rising prosperity in its home market.
Three-quarters of his smaller companies fund is in companies whose areas of activity are overseas. Even the venture capital trust, which is more restricted in what it can invest in, sees 55% of investee company revenues come from outside the UK.
Mr Jourdan said: “We have set out to internationalise. I do not think that is going to change soon.”
Mr Jourdan has an unusual pedigree for a fund manager. He was a first violinist in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra who went on to write a PhD on composer Felix Mendelssohn’s visits to London.
His investment career started at legendary Scottish funds house Stewart Ivory before taking him through First State and Noble.
Since launching, Amati’s Edinburgh office has been joined by a London-based commodities trading team which is expected to launch a commodities futures trading fund this year.
Mr Jourdan is currently on a fundraising drive for both funds. The £34m Amati VCT is seeking an additional £18m.
At just £10.3m, Amati’s smaller companies fund is not particularly profitable, Mr Jourdan acknowledged. He hopes recent performance will help attract assets. It has returned 54.2% in a year against 31.7% for its benchmark Hoare Govett Smaller Companies Index.
It is rated top quartile among smaller companies funds over one, three, five and 10 years.
“With a headwind we can get it up to an economic size,” he said.
But he warned returns from small firms’ stocks would not hit the heights of recent years.
“We are scaling down our ambition a bit. Any fund that makes 20% this year I would think is outstandingly good.”
