holland44
28 Nov 2017
Excellent Performance I'm trying to think of a reason not to buy this trust: since January 2016 it's experienced a big turnaround in performance, and according to Trustnet it is now second only to THRG in terms of 3-year NAV return in the UK All Companies and Small Cap sectors; the Alpha is third-best, and Sharpe is a respectable 10th best at 2.39. The discount is OK at 7.5% (closing from 22% earlier this year), and just the volatility is relatively high.However, why it's even in the UK All Companies sector is unclear: with 55% invested in the US and 15% in China and only 15% in the UK, it's really a tech-heavy Global trust. Judging from its Top10 holdings - Amazon 12%, Alphabet 9%, Facebook 8.6%, Microsoft 8.6%, Alibaba 7%, Tencent 6.6%, Apple 5.7% and SMT and PCT around 4% - it's basically channelling Scottish Mortgage.What are the negatives? The main ones I've seen are that the trust has made hefty calls on cyclicals and consumer stocks in the past and mis-timed these, so it had a poor track record; the trust's recent strong patch may therefore just be a blip and one would better going for a more established trust like SMT or recent improvers like Monks. That said, MNL's manager apparently owns 50-60% of the shares, which is definitely a strong alignment between the manager's interests and the trust's.
foglight
03 Mar 2017
Re: IC tip Highlighted again in yesterday's Telegraph. So rose about 35p over two days probably as a result of the article. (So 348p)
PIE-EATER
16 Feb 2017
Re: IC tip mmm.....just considering a small position in this following ST tip in IC.....don't have a dedicated exposure to US tech so may dovetail ok. Wasn't terribly convinced to follow up on many of ST bargain shares this year - Bowleven and Gresham still being looked at, the rest don't seem to have the "durability" am am looking for without significant risk.PE
foglight
11 Feb 2017
Re: IC tip Schovald, I saw the tip also and have subsequently bought a few. Seems a reasonable way to diversify with good U.S tech stocks and leading pharma as well. Looks to be one to keep long term. (so 307p)
schovald
10 Feb 2017
IC tip Tipped in the IC last week as it offers a portfolio of large tech companies at a discount of around 20%.
Tadpol52
06 Feb 2017
Will things turn around? Is the IC article going to make a difference?
pharmaspecialist
05 Dec 2015
Awful performance The recent cumulative performance figures on Trustnet show that over the past 5 years Manchester & London Investment Trust has lost 20% of its value whilst the UK All Companies index is up 55%. Such an abysmal performance indicates that Mark Sheppard is one of the worst performing fund managers in this sector. I do not understand why he is allowed to continue. Another warning to shareholders is that my dividend cheque has just arrived in an open envelope because the envelope was so old that the glue had dried up long ago. Last year I actually received two dividend cheques at this time of year, one belonging to myself and one belonging to another shareholder, who I forwarded it to. It would appear that this company's administrative performance is on a par with the investment performance. Needless to say I will not be shareholder for much longer but for those who do, I would recommend ensuring that your dividends are paid direct into a bank account.
