HNE : Narrowing discount boosts returns from Henderson Eurotrust
The year that finished on 31 July 2014 was a good one for shareholders in Henderson Eurotrust as its discount narrowed considerably on top of outperformance of its benchmark index. For the period Henderson Eurotrust generated a return on net assets of 5.4% against a 4.1% return on the FTSE World Europe ex UK, the dividend was increased from 17p to 17.5p and the discount narrowed from 6.9% to 0.9%. The fund would have done even better had Sterling not appreciated against the Euro by 10.5%.
In the portfolio, the manager (Tim Stevenson, pictured) says he has been adding to companies where growth is closely linked to the economic environment such as, E.ON, St Gobain, and ABB. He is adding to his auto components exposure by buying Continental and Autoliv and has also added Infineon (semiconductors), and Qiagen which is involved in equipment for analysing genes (DNA analysis).