Having suffered with low or negative returns for many years, performance appears to be turning around, but whether that is simply an effect of an improving environment in general remains to be seen.
Alison Warner is a freelance journalist
EXPERT VIEW
Rob Morgan, pension and investments analyst at Charles Stanley Direct
VERDICT
“This trust takes a reasonably diverse approach rather than taking on too much stock or sector specific risk. The natural growth bias of the team has been tempered in recent years and performance has improved. The trust retains gearing of roughly 12 per cent so it ought to outperform if the market is rising. It had a tough time during the credit crisis, from which it has now started to recover. I would prefer a slightly more focused portfolio plus the charges also look a little high for an investment trust. The discount to NAV is approximately 10 per cent, – not enough to tempt me in.”
