Investment Trust Insider on Monks Investment Trust – James Carthew: I’m made up by Monks’ makeover
It is three years since I last wrote about Monks (MNKS) investment trust. Back then, the triumvirate of Charles Plowden, Spencer Adair and Malcom MacColl had only recently taken on responsibility for the trust and started running it in-line with their Global Alpha strategy.
The signs were hopeful but the shares were still trading on a double-digit discount below net asset value (NAV) and, after a prolonged period of buying back stock, had a market value of £881 million.
Today, the picture is much improved. Monks’ market capitalisation has almost doubled to £1.6 billion but, remarkably, only about £30 million of this has come from issuing new shares. The balance came from a 51% growth in NAV and the elimination of the discount. There has been a notable shift in the trust’s share register over that period as well. Wealth managers and individual investors now hold about 80% of the shares, up from around 60%.
Monks is the more measured, less aggressive version of Scottish Mortgage Trust (SMT). It has a much more diverse portfolio than its bigger brother and has room for a few of the smaller companies favoured by stable mate Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI).
The managers say they own stocks that should do well in almost all markets. That’s a bold claim… read more here