Lord Rothschild slashes dollar holdings amid £250m fund rise
LORD Rothschild, scion of banking’s famous dynasty, halved his fund’s exposure to the dollar while building a bigger position in sterling, new results show.
RIT Capital Partners, his listed investment trust, cut dollar holdings to 41 per cent at the end of October from 80 per cent in June, while increasing sterling from 31 per cent to 53 per cent.
The move is in keeping with a host of other UK-based fund managers who have cut their dollar exposures on a strengthening UK economy.
Currency holdings, as well as hedge fund and government bond stakes, account for about four per cent of the fund.
The fund, which also appointed Lord Rothschild’s broadcaster daughter Hannah Rothschild to the board over the period, again lifted the amount of cash it hands to external funds managers to 51 per cent, versus 44 per cent a year ago.
Rothschild previously said the fund was consolidating investments in third party managed funds by cutting the number of funds held in favour of holding stocks directly.
JP Morgan analysts kept a positive rating on the fund after they said the price at which RIT shares traded was below the price of assets it owned. The value of the fund’s holdings rose £250m over the period from the end of June to October.