What I learned from 15 years of investing in small companies Max King spent 15 years managing funds in the small-companies sector. Here he reveals the secrets of long-term investment success 2 Apr 2021 In early March, Spirax-Sarco Engineering’s results for 2020 caused the share price to rise by 380p. What made this catch my eye was not the size of the jump – less than 3.5% from £110 – but that 380p was far more than I remember paying for shares in the group, which makes steam-management systems and pumps, for the small-cap trust I started running in the late 1980s. Since then, the shares have multiplied 50-fold, excluding dividends.