RIT looking for the next BRIC

3rd Jun 2011 08:17

The net asset value (NAV) per share of investment trust RIT Capital Partners hit a new high at the end of March, though it has eased back since the end of the trust's financial year.In the year to 31 March 2011, the trust's NAV per share appreciated by 9.3% to 1,289.4p from 1180.1p a year earlier. Over the same period, the MSCI World Index in Sterling, the most relevant benchmark, rose by 5.2% and the FTSE All-Share Index rose by 5.4%.Total net assets improved to £1,984m at the end of March from £1,815.7m the year before. As at May 20, NAV per share was 1,265.4p.Over the past five and 10 years the trust's returns stand at 31.2% and 166.2% as compared with MSCI World Index returns in Sterling of 8.2% and 11.1%.The level of public market exposure stayed broadly between 50% and 70% over the last financial year. The trust maintained above-average exposure to the commodity and related sectors as well as a significant exposure to emerging markets, in particular to sectors aimed at growing domestic demand within these economies. Recently, the trust has started to build modest exposure to what it calls "frontier markets" in an attempt get ahead of the sort of trend that saw investors clamour for exposure to the so called BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries. "The unquoted portfolio as a whole produced gains of a little over 15%. Notable disposals in the period under review included our holding in The Economist Newspaper which was sold for £24.7 million in December 2010," said company chairman, Lord Rothschild. The company paid £1.5m for the stake in 1988, since when it has banked dividends of £15.1m from the holding.On the subject of its own dividend payment, the board has proposed a final dividend of 4.0p. --jh