James Carthew, 24 October 2024, The Telegraph’s Questor on AVI Global Trust: This trust doesn’t need the Magnificent Seven to beat global markets
At 135 years old, AVI Global is still able to find undervalued winners
Over the 39 years that Asset Value Investors has been running AVI Global Trust, it has grown its assets from £6m to around £1.3bn. Its investment approach stands out from other global equity trusts, with its portfolio an eclectic mix of investment trusts, holding companies and Japanese stocks. The common link is that when AVI Global invests, their share prices stand at a big discount to AVI’s assessment of their underlying value.
AVI Global’s approach may be best understood by looking at some of its recent success stories. In the investment trust sector, discounts widened when interest rates started to rise a few years ago, creating a wealth of opportunities. One of those that AVI alighted upon was the music royalty investor, Hipgnosis Songs Fund.
AVI played a big part in preventing the sale of part of that company’s portfolio at a knock-down price, securing a change of leadership and achieving the best result for shareholders in the ensuing bidding war. In the wake of this, Hipgnosis was briefly AVI Global’s largest position, but the cash proceeds have since been recycled.
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