City of London Investment Group (CLIG) 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 UK 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’s career spanned over 50 years within the investment trust (closed-end fund) sector. He began his career in 1964 with Denny Brothers, ultimately Pinchin Denny, as a market maker in the sector. In 1979 he moved to Laing & Cruickshank as a member of their investment trust department, and became a director in 1984. Barry retired as the CEO of CLIG at the end of 2019, and remained on the CLIG Board as a non-executive director until his retirement in July 2022.
CLIG was admitted to AIM on 12 April 2006, to provide existing institutional shareholders with liquidity and the ability to realise part of their investment, without raising any new money. The firm updated to main market listed on the London Stock Exchange at the end of October 2010.
On October 1, 2020, CLIG completed a merger with Karpus Management, Inc., doing business as Karpus Investment Management and expanded its range to provide closed end fund strategies to wealth management clients.