Aberdeen New Dawn has published figures for the year that ended 30 April 2014. Over the year the trust’s net asset value return was -8.9%, a bit worse than the benchmark (MSCI All Countries Asia Pacific ex Japan index) total return of -6.8%. Unfortunately the discount widened and the return to shareholders was -14.0%. The annual dividend has been increased from 3.4p to 3.6p.
The report mentions strength of Sterling, falls in the share prices of banks – Standard Chartered and OCBC (the latter on worries it was overpaying for an acquisition); Jardine Strategic (on weaker demand in Indonesia); Hang Lung, Swire Pacific and City Developments (on possible higher interest rates and curbs on property development); and QBE (on problem in its American operations).