You probably didn’t get over-excited by the tortoise funds I recommended recently; Stick to the Plan.
So here are a couple more tortoises that might tickle your fancy. I bought RIT Capital Partners a long time ago and it has been a good performer. In the past five years it is up 43%. It pays a dividend of 1.34% and is at a small discount. I have held Caledonia Investments since May 2003 and it has gone up by 378%. In the past five years, for comparison with RIT, it is up 38% yields 1.64% and is at a discount of 20%. Interestingly these two investment trusts have on average returned about 8% a year; similar to the first two tortoises: McInroy & Wood Balanced Fund and Personal Assets Trust. But not everything goes up. One day I will show you my bloomers.
Glaxo has done sweet fanny aspirins for a decade, although it does chuck shareholders red meat four times a year – a 5% dividend. But a return of less than 5% over five years! I have been a shareholder for so long I have got Stockholm, I mean Solpadeine, Syndrome.
MP Evans sticks to its knitting. Last year palm oil prices averaged $810, up from $591 in 2020. That’s good luck. What’s good plantation management is increasing the crop by 13% last year. What’s good housekeeping is reducing debt from $78 million in 2020 to below $10 million. MPE is a rare example of a company with a long term strategy benefitting employees and their families (more than 10,000 in Indonesia), the Indonesian economy, the environment (an early adopter of sustainable production) and rightly at the back of the queue, shareholders.
This takes me full circle. RIT, Caledonia and MPE have significant family ownership, able to eschew short term speculation for long term investment objectives. Shareholders are usually unable to embrace this philosophy; the acceptable, desirable face of capitalism.
Now that’s enough about tortoises, join the turtles.