Good fund managers are few and far between. Even rarer are those who stay at the top of their game for an extended period.
Last week, I spoke with Nick Train of asset manager Lindsell Train, who has been running the Finsbury Growth & Income investment fund since late December 2000.
During this period, it has generated an average annual return to shareholders of 9.8 percent. To put this in context, the FTSE All-Share Index, the trust’s benchmark, has returned 5.1 per cent a year.
Although Train is not a chick, in his early 60s, he is determined to emulate the great Warren Buffett and continue to manage money for as long as his clients allow him to. “I don’t have a Plan B,” he said last week, “and I don’t long for a Plan B. We [him and Michael Lindsell] I want to go on and on.
Lindsell Train manages £17bn worth of assets, but Train says Finsbury Growth & Income is his responsibility and is the only fund that has “the majority of it” in it. In other words, it represents the best of Train.
Invest wisely: Lindsell Train manages £17bn worth of assets
While the trust underperformed the FTSE All-Share in both 2021 and 2022, Train is convinced that his strategy of investing in some of the “greatest businesses in the country and holding them for a very long period of time” will pay off. to patient shareholders.
It’s an approach he has never strayed from since taking over the reins of the trust. Although he admits there has been some luck along the way, and some mistakes have been made, the long-term numbers show that his method works. “There hasn’t been a stylistic drift,” he says. “I’m doing exactly what I was doing from day one: investing in world-class businesses.”
The names of the 22 shares of the trust confirm this. The three largest holdings, all above 10 percent of the fund’s assets, are in the London Stock Exchange, the RELX research business and beverage giant Diageo. Other large British companies he owns are Experian, Fever-Tree and Unilever.
“I have held Diageo in trust since 2002,” he says. ‘It’s the best spirits business in the world with stellar brands like Johnnie Walker and Guinness. In the last 20 years its share price has gone from around £7 to £34 and there is no reason why it can’t repeat this performance and hit £170 by 2043.’
He adds: ‘In the industry I work in, everyone seems to be interested in the short term, the next three months. But I’m more interested in identifying companies that will prove to be successful investments in the next 20 years.
“I don’t know how the trust will perform this year or next, but I will continue to do what I have been doing for more than 22 years in the hope that it will continue to pay off for shareholders.”
Reassuring words from one of the best fund managers in the country.
Isa’s portfolios exceed £1 million in growth
How fantastic to know that there are now over 4,000 investors in this country who own over £1m worth of Isa portfolios.
This information, obtained through a freedom of information request by The Open Partnership network of financial advisers, is encouraging for many reasons.
It demonstrates the value of long-term investment and shows that governments occasionally get it right.
So keep investing in an Isa if you have one, and if you don’t, set it up. You never know, one day you might join Isa’s millionaire jet setter.
I can’t resist Greggs…and it’s also a delicious home for the money
Although I’m constantly trying to lose weight, I couldn’t resist a few visits to Greggs while I was away late last month, both on holiday in Ambleside and on the tortuous journey home down the congested M6.
While I like the baked steaks and Belgian scones they serve, it’s the value-for-money prices that ensure I return again and again. Sometimes I wonder if I haven’t been charged for everything I ordered.
Tasty: There’s no reason Greggs can’t continue to serve both clients and investors.
A few days ago, the business, which comprises nearly 2,400 outlets, reported double-digit increases in both sales and profits for the first half of this year.
Chief Executive Roisin Currie said the company’s emphasis on offering customers good value for money was paying off.
While its shares pulled back a bit after the half-year results, the FTSE 250 Greggs share comfortably outperformed the FTSE All-Share Index over the past year.
There is no reason why this tasty UK company, based in the magical city of Newcastle, cannot continue to serve clients and investors alike.
Don’t forget to redeem your stamps
If you have stamps in your bag or wallet that don’t come with a unique barcode, you’ve missed the opportunity to use them. But don’t despair. You can redeem them by printing a stamp exchange form at Royalmail.com and then sending the stamps in an envelope to Freepost SWAP OUT.
I have just sent five first class stamps to be redeemed. Given Royal Mail’s history of delaying deliveries, I would imagine that the Syston banking center could be up and running before I receive my exchanges.
Hubs are still the elephant in the room
When an agreement was reached between banks and other stakeholders in December 2021 to launch a series of new shared banking centers, it was met with overwhelming approval.
We as a newspaper had campaigned long and hard for such centers to be introduced, so we were over the proverbial moon.
However, the gestation period for these new centers is proving painfully long. Although 76 centers have been promised in communities where the city’s last bank closed, only seven have opened so far, and two of those were pilots established before the deal was signed.
Long wait: the gestation period of these new centers will make that of an African elephant (645 days) seem like a bump
Of the five new promises in December 2021, only three have so far opened their doors to the public: Brixham in Devon, Carnoustie in Angus and Acton in west London (which I visited last month). Number four, Knaresborough in North Yorkshire, is getting close (suitable premises have been found). However, the proposed fifth center in Syston, Leicestershire, is proving a bit trickier.
His delay is upsetting some residents, including Rosemarie Collins, who now has to travel eight miles to Melton Mowbray if she wants to use the services of her HSBC bank branch. “I feel like the longer this delay goes on, the less chance we have of a center being established,” Rosemarie told me last week.
The good news, as far as Rosemarie and other Syston residents are concerned, is that progress is being made. Cash Access UK, the organization responsible for getting the banking centers up and running, says a building has been identified and lease negotiations are “underway”. I was told that the center could be up and running by the end of the year.
It has been 600 days since Syston was informed that he would be the recipient of a banking center. I imagine that by the time it opens up, it will make the gestation period of an African elephant (645 days) look like a bump.
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