Personal Assets Trust (PNL) says its "primary objective is to protect and increase (in that order) the value of shareholders’ funds per share over the long term" and it is the largest of the three wealth preservation trusts in the Flexible sector (the other two being Capital Gearing and Ruffer). PNL was launched in 1983, became self-managed in 1990, and was run by Ian Rushbrook from 1990 until he died after a short illness in 2008. Troy Asset Management was appointed as the management firm in early 2009 and Sebastian Lyon has been the lead manager for the last decade and a half. PNL currently ...
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BH Macro (tickers: BHMG and BHMU) is the largest trust in the AIC Hedge Fund sector with net assets of £1.3bn. It invests solely in the Brevan Howard Master Fund, which in turn invests in a number of other Brevan Howard funds as well as having its own core portfolio. The Master Fund focuses on fixed income and currency investment and seeks to exploit pricing anomalies and increased market volatility. Although the Master Fund uses leverage, it says that most trades are structured to minimise downside risk where possible. After a period of impressive returns following its 2007 IPO, BH Macro's NA...
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Capital Gearing Trust (ticker: CGT) is one of a handful of defensive investment trusts that sit in the AIC's Flexible sector. It has been listed since 1973 and managed by Peter Spiller since 1982 although the trust's investment team has been broadened in recent years with Alastair Laing joining in 2011 and Chris Clothier in 2015. Famously, Capital Gearing has only had one down year since Spiller took charge -- a 2% loss in 2013/14. Since the turn of the century, it has held a reduced proportion of its portfolio in risk assets such as equities preferring index-linked bonds to protect against in...
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This week's profile features the family-controlled Canadian General Investments trust, which has a strong 30-year track record, despite being low profile and trading at a significant discount. The Q and A this week is with Stuart Widdowson, the manager of the Odyssean investment trust (ticker: OIT), a UK smaller company vehicle which I like and have mentioned a number of times before. The notes offer some early thoughts on the potential impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine and beyond The news that broke on Thursday morning that Russia had launched a full scale invasion of U...
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This week's profile features Henderson Smaller Companies, managed by Neil Hermon, a UK equity trust with a consistently steady track record. Instead of a Q and A, this week I summarise the performance of five defensive investment trusts and create a new portfolio to track their performance.
Market thoughts The latest global fund manager survey suggests that the majority of professional fund managers are all now in a more bearish mood, with increased levels of cash, expectations of at least four interest rate rises from the Federal Reserve and notably overweight banks, energy and value stoc...
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