Stock selection down for British & American

Stock selection down for British & American – British & American Investment Trust (BAF) has released its final annual report.

Performance

In it, the company reports that the NAV at the year end 31 December 2017 were £15.5m (2016:  £22.7m), a decrease of 31.5%. This compares to increases in the FTSE 100 and All Share indices of 7.6% and 9.0% over the year. On a total return basis, the NAV decreased by 20.7%, compared to a 11.0% increase and a 12.0% increase in the FTSE 100 and All Share indices on the same basis.

This significant underperformance was due to substantial falls in the value of our US investments. As reported previously, Geron Corporation, the company’s portfolio’s largest investment, fell 13.0% in US dollar terms over the year and 20.5% in sterling terms.

Dividend

The total payment for the year will be 8.6p (2016:  8.4p) per ordinary share, an increase of 2.4% over the previous year’s total dividend and a yield of 12.3% based on the share price of 70p at the end of the year. A dividend of 1.75p will be paid to preference shareholders resulting in a total payment for the year of 3.5p per share.

The company was named as a ‘Dividend Hero’ by the Association of Investment Companies for the second year.