By David Thorpe, FT Adviser, 1 July 2024:
Fund manager Nick Train has revealed that despite many UK-listed companies trading at very low valuations, he isn’t interested in buying them.
Speaking on a webinar hosted by QuotedData, an investment trust research house and commenting on his role as manager of the Finsbury Growth and Income trust, a UK equity mandate, Train acknowledged that performance the Finsbury Growth and Income trust had been relatively weak “since the end of Covid.”
Finsbury Growth and Income trust has just 20 holdings, and has only added three new stocks since 2020. Since then, much has happened: inflation rose sharply, the pandemic ended with its effects still being felt, and Russia invaded Ukraine, to name but a few.
Train said he tried to keep the portfolio “super focused” and that he regarded over trading as a risk to portfolio returns.
He said: “Brokers and the media try to make us act, because that drives the industry and the headlines. But I think we are aware of how little we truly know about the future, and we know that trading is expensive, so we try to minimise that.”
Despite his optimism for the prospects of the UK stocks he owns, Train said: “I am not one of those people that says the UK has performed so badly that the market is a huge bargain, I’m not sure about that at the index level. But I think there have been some nuggets that got dropped down with the index.”
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