Investment trust insider on AI – James Carthew: Tech trusts transform their returns with big AI bets
Ignoring a couple of oddities, the best-performing investment company last year in terms of underlying growth in net asset value (NAV) was Manchester & London (MNL), which generated a return of 57%. A narrowing discount meant that shareholders got a return of 70% (placing it second behind 3i Group (III) which generated an 85% return).
Manchester & London is unusual in that its lead fund manager Mark Sheppard is by far the largest shareholder, controlling over 57% of the shares in issue or about £125m worth. He is passionate about what he does and invests the £215m investment trust with conviction.
The rest of the M&L Capital Management team is comprised of co-manager Richard Morgan and Brett Miller, who is head of governance and risk oversight. You may have seen Miller’s name crop up as a director of trusts that need knocking into shape – he just went onto the board of Digital 9 Infrastructure, for example.
MNL has long been focused on growing companies but from about a decade ago, the emphasis has been increasingly on technology, which has gone from about 45% of the portfolio in July 2015 to almost all of it at the end of December 2023.
Currently, the emphasis is overwhelmingly on….
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