Brunner beat the market in 2020 – Brunner Investment trust’s results for the year ended 30 November 2020 show an NAV total return of 6.2% for the period, ahead of the 5.3% return delivered by the trust’s benchmark (70% World Ex-UK and 30% UK All-Share). As dividend cuts and suspensions abounded in the wake of the pandemic, the trust’s earnings per share fell from 21.7p to 16p. The board looked to the company’s revenue reserves, which had been built up in the good times, and decided to look through the crisis and pay an increased dividend of 20.6p, making up the revenue shortfall by dipping into reserves. Even after this, Brunner still has revenue reserves of 24.5p per share.
In May 2020, Lucy Macdonald stepped down as portfolio manager. Matthew Tillett, who worked closely with Lucy on Brunner for a number of years, took over the lead manager role. He is supported by global equity managers Christian Schneider, a long standing member of Lucy’s team, and Marcus Morris-Eyton, a long standing member of Allianz Global Investors’ European Growth team. [Matthew is on our news show tomorrow, talking to QuotedData’s James Carthew. You can register to listen in and ask Matthew questions here.]
In the short-term, the trust’s discount widened following Lucy’s departure, which came at a time of heightened uncertainty in markets. The board and manager have stepped up their marketing efforts but, as yet, no shares have been bought back. Currently, the discount stands at 13%.
[Unfortunately, Matthew’s manager’s report has not made it into this morning’s announcement, so we don’t know what drove the trust’s outperformance. The statement doesn’t even say what the return to shareholders was. These sorts of things are commonplace and we hope this is an area that they address in future reports.]
BUT : Brunner beat the market in 2020