Februar y 2020
BRIAN TORA
TAKE THE WEATHER WITH YOU As we enter a new decade, which were the investment trusts which sparkled most brightly in the first twenty years of the twenty first century? Brian Tora looks at the detail
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o here we are in the third decade of the twenty first century. Is it really more than twenty years since we were all worrying about how the millennium bug might freeze all cash machines and result in planes falling out of the sky? And do you remember that first technology bubble which burst early in the year 2000, causing much upset to markets worldwide? I certainly do. Yet technology remains at the core of investment thinking these days, with the largest companies in the world technology titans. TOP OF THE INVESTMENT COMPANY POPS Surprisingly, technology did not feature in the top ten of best performing investment companies since the start of the new century. According to a table compiled from the Association of Investment Companies’ statistics, the best performing trust from the start of 2000 to the end of 2019 was TR Property, returning a staggering 1890%. Given the recent upsets in the property market, this seems a
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remarkable result for an asset class that many will consider falls into the legacy category. Not that any other property trusts featured amongst the winners. Property, of course, fits in better with a closed-ended fund as the managers will not be under pressure to sell assets to meet investor redemptions. Many of the other top performers in the first twenty years of the twenty first century were invested in more liquid assets, though by no means all. Two private equity trusts feature in the top ten, the better performer, Hg Capital, coming in at number five returning a respectable 1456%. Once again this is an asset class which can suffer liquidity issues, so a closed-ended approach must be the better option. Aside from the second-best performing investment trust, Worldwide Healthcare which delivered plus 1550%, there is a strong smaller companies bias amongst the best performing trusts over the past twenty years. Asia also features heavily, with Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies, Aberdeen Standard Asia Focus and Aberdeen New Thai
I FAmagazine.com
