Baillie Gifford European’s results for the 12 months ended 30 September 2022 show the impact of the change in sentiment towards growth investing on the company. Over the period, the NAV total return was -40.4% compared to a total return of -15.3% for its benchmark index. The share price total return for the same period was -47.7% as the discount widened from 1.3% to 13.5% despite buybacks totalling £7.4m.
This reverses all of the trust’s earlier outperformance and more – since Baillie Gifford began managing the portfolio in November 2019, the NAV total return has been 0.8% compared to a total return of 3.9% for the FTSE Europe ex UK Index. The share price total return has been -5.6%.
Revenue per share for the year was 0.79p (2021: 0.44p) and the board is recommending a final dividend of 0.70p per share (0.35p).
One of the three lead portfolio managers Moritz Sitte left Baillie Gifford in July 2022 to work for a family office. As far as I can tell, this is the first time that shareholders are hearing about this.
The largest detractors to relative performance were: Zalando, an online fashion retailer; Takeaway.com, an online food delivery service; and Wizz Air, a low cost airline.
BGEU : A reversal of fortune for Baillie Gifford European