The Establishment Investment Trust has published its results for the year that ended 31 March 2014. Over that period its net asset value fell by 20.4% and its share price fell by 17.4%. By comparison, the MSCI All World Index rose by 6.2% and the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Index fell by 6.4% over the same period. The dividend was increased from 4.6p to 4.7p.
The company attributes part of the problem with its performance to the strength of Sterling but also blames the fall in Gold bullion and poor asset allocation decisions within Asian markets. There is no more detailed explanation of the poor performance in the statement.
The managers of the fund, a boutique called BDT, are rolling themselves into a larger company, Blackfriars Asset Management. The upshot of this will be that the company keeps the same investment manager but the performance fee will be dropped, the fund’s investment in BDT will be realised and the investment policy updated to allow Establishment to invest in funds managed by Blackfriars.