Aberforth Smaller Companies reported a 0.7% fall in its asset value on a total return basis over 2014, better than the -1.9% return generated by the Numis Smaller Companies excluding Investment Companies Index. The return to shareholders over the period was 0.1%. the final dividend was 17p, making a total of 24.75p for the year, an increase of 5.35 over 2013’s level.
No mention was made of the contribution of individual stocks to the company’s performance over the year in the managers’ statement although they did say that stock selection was the biggest contributor to the fund’s outperformance. they also said that there wasn’t much to choose between value stocks and growth stocks in terms of performance over 2014.
The Annual Report & Accounts didn’t have much more information either – this seems bizarre to us.
ASL : Aberforth reports marginal outperformance