Monks; strong performance with lower fees – the Annual Financial Report of The Monks Investment Trust PLC (MNKS) for the year ended 30 April 2018 has been published.
Performance
The NAV total return of MKNS, with borrowings calculated at fair value, was 15.8% and the share price total return was 20.4%. Over the same period the total return for the FTSE World Index was 7.5%, in sterling terms. Baillie Gifford, the investment manager, changed the investment strategy to invest in growth companies in March 2015. Since this new strategy has been adopted, the NAV total return at fair value has been 57.9% and the share price total return 84.4% against the comparative index at 40.3%.
Earnings per share were up 10.6% at 2.61p, compared to 2.36p in 2017. As a result, the board has been able to recommend a single final dividend of 1.40p, which is a 12.0% increase, compared to 1.25p last year. This is the minimum required to maintain investment trust status. No interim dividend was paid during the year.
The investment manager sites NVIDIA, Alibaba, Naspers, GrubHub, Autohome, MasterCard, Fiat Chrysler, AIA and Abiomed, amongst the most significant contributors. Each company grew earnings by at least a third in calendar 2017. The single largest contributor was Amazon, which grew its reported earnings 26% in 2017. During the year the share price of fourteen holdings rose by more than 50% in sterling terms.
Management Fee
Ongoing charges for the year to 30 April 2018 were 0.52%, down from 0.59% in the prior year.
The board agreed a new two tiered management fee in 2017 with the investment manager. An additional tier to the management fee, coming down to 0.30% on assets above £1.75bn, with effect from 1 May 2018 has also been agreed.
MNKS : Monks; strong performance with lower fees