British Empire’s interim results for the six months that ended 31 March 2014 show the fund generating a total return on net assets of 4.8%, beating its benchmark (the MSCI All Country World ex US Index) which returned 2.4% but lagging the 5.6% return on the MSCI All Country World Index and the 5.5% return on the Morningstar Investment trust Global Index. The interim dividend was maintained at 2.0p per share. The discount widened from 11.8% to 13.7% as the share price rose by 0.4%.
Strone Macpherson’s Chairman’s statement says that a substantial proportion of the portfolio was changed during the period.
The managers say that Vivendi and Investor made the largest contributions to British Empire’s performance for the period but strong Sterling held back returns.