OUR PORTFOLIO

The view from our Investment Manager, 31 December 2019

Over the fourth quarter, Trust’s total shareholder return and NAV total return were 5.6% and 3.9% respectively, outperforming the benchmark MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) which returned 1.3%. Fourth quarter performance brought the Trust’s Total Shareholder Return for 2019 to 24.3%, and NAV Total Return to 23.1%. The benchmark MSCI ACWI returned 21.7% for the year.

The Trust intends to provide investors with broad exposure to global equity markets and to be a core holding in investors’ portfolios. The global nature of the portfolio has helped the Trust generate very strong shareholder returns year to date and over longer periods.

Over the fourth quarter, MSCI ACWI index in GBP returned 1.3%. In the US, the Federal reserve cut interest rates for the third time this year in October, contributing significantly to the strong performance in equity markets. Furthermore, geopolitical tensions eased with the progress in US-China trade negotiations, resulting in a positive response in equity markets as investor confidence rose. In the UK, a comfortable majority won by the Conservative Party in the general election led to a positive performance for UK equities, along with an appreciation of sterling relative to other major market currencies, as the UK can now secure a European Union withdrawal bill for the end of January 2020. 

Within the portfolio, Qorvo Inc., a US-based semiconductor company that provides solutions for wireless and broadband communications, contributed most to the overall performance of the fund, delivering 46% as the company posted quarterly results that topped analysts’ expectations. Furthermore, Italian luxury fashion brand Prada outperformed considerably with a 32.5% return, following partnership agreements created with other luxury brands and numerous strategic corporate transactions to improve the group structure. The portfolio’s holding in consumer goods conglomerate Unilever resulted in a detraction from performance, as the UK company reduced their sales growth projection in the South Asian market. 

The Trust’s stock pickers continued to search for favourable investments for the fund throughout the quarter. A position was initiated in Altice USA, a US-based television cable provider delivering telecommunication services to 4.9 million customers across the US. Altice USA offer an opportunity, alongside the Trust’s existing positions in Comcast and Charter Communications, in cable companies that also provide broadband sales and show good potential to benefit from the streaming revolution taking place across television services.  The Trust’s position in Weir Group, initiated in September, has proven to contribute to performance throughout the fourth quarter, due to its attractive valuation and strong positioning within the global engineering and manufacturing markets. A position in Rolls Royce is currently being reviewed, due to ongoing T1000 engine issues and associated costs, yet the company remains diligent in ensuring that customers are not affected. Finally, there were some small adjustments to the managers’ allocations at the end of the year to maintain portfolio balance and limit the size of benchmark-relative country positioning, such as taking profit from the UK overweight position and adding to Emerging Markets exposure.