Nick Train: ‘I’m running out of ways to say sorry’ for poor performance
Star fund manager Nick Train has apologised again for the poor performance of his £1.4bn Finsbury Growth & Income trust.
Over the last five years, the trust’s share price has grown only 10.9 per cent, compared to its benchmark’s growth of 26.5 per cent, according to its most recent factsheet.
Tracking the FTSE All-Share index, the trust has also underperformed its peers in the UK equity income space over the last three and five years, according to data from the Association of Investment Companies.
In the trust’s annual general meeting, Train said “I sort of feel I’m running out of ways to say sorry,” according to reports from Citywire.
Looking at the trust’s results, Train said: “As I look at this slide, I do not find myself in the mood for fuzzy nostalgia and I definitely don’t feel in the mood for any form of self-congratulation.”
Over the last five years, Train has cut the trust’s holding in shares from outside the UK from 18 per cent to zero, arguing that the UK market is “pregnant with value”.
Last month, Train made two new additions to the portfolio, shipbroker Clarkson and toll-booth company Intertek.
“The companies are beneficiaries of the growth of global trade, and rising macro-economic concerns about the prospects for global trade in the second half of 2024 have created an opportunity to invest on favourable terms,” said Train.
Finsbury Growth & Income’s share price has traded at a permanent discount to its underlying assets since May 2021. Its discount currently sits at 6.4 per cent.
Despite the poor performance, it was revealed in June that Train had raked in £14m in dividends from running the trust last year, along with an estimated £2.6m for his role as director.
In July, Train’s £2.7bn Global Equity Fund, one of the largest in the UK, saw its ‘process’ rating downgraded from Above Average to Average.