I’m not an AGM junkie but I know the breed.
We are all retired – I was not the oldest man by a long chalk – and there was a good turn-out from women of a similar age yesterday at Spencer House for the RIT AGM. Yesterday morning I meant to buy more Personal Assets Trust, adding to a significant holding but, you know how it is, other important matters, like The Times crossword, intruded. This morning I bought RIT instead. Why?
The team that manage the trust – the pickers in that great financial fruit farm – have been in situ for at least ten years and seem to know what they are doing. They did badly in 2022 because like other international trusts they lost money in China. They lost a lot less than, say, Scottish Mortgage, and seem to be back on track to deliver good growth. But sentiment has turned against these trusts. The biggest drag on the share price is the 17% discount to NAV. The managers are addressing this in two ways: almost daily buying back shares for the trust (held in Treasury until they may be reissued as a nice little earner for shareholders*) and buying the shares themselves. They have a three year gestation period for their picks; an ambitious target.
Francesco Goedhuis is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of J Rothschild Capital Management. A shareholder asked how many shares the managers owned compared to the Board. Sir James Leigh-Pemberton, Chairman of RIT, I think mis-spoke when he said the managers owned more. I think Hannah Rothschild, Board member, either owns or has control over a good whack. But while the managers did not disclose their holdings, why should they, Francesco said RIT is the only share he holds. He also said he gets frequent warnings from Hargreaves Lansdown about “concentration risk” in his portfolio. Gratifying that he uses low-cost broker Hargreaves Lansdown and not St James’s Place Wealth Management, founded by Lord Rothschild. These are insights only gained from attending an AGM.
*This was elicited in reply to a question from a shareholder (me, actually).
Please may we have some CB wisdom on Graham Greene? I have just reread The Heart of the Matter, last read 53 years ago under the inspiring guidance of the head of English. I loved it at the time; like a top claret it improved massively with age