Nick Train has taken his personal investment in the Finsbury Growth and Income investment trust he runs above £40mn having purchased another £210,000 of shares in the company.
A stock market announcement confirmed that Train now owns 3.3 per cent of the shares in the £1.39bn UK equity trust, a stake worth about £40mn.
The trust has suffered severe performance issues of late, and is presently the worst performer in its sector over the past five years, returning 3 per cent, compared with 33 per cent for the peer group average.
It is also the worst performer over the 12 months to October 10.
He has managed the trust since 2000 when he jointly founded his own business, Lindsell Train Limited.
Mel Jenner, director of investment trust research at Edison, remains a fan of Train despite the performance issues.
In a note to clients he wrote: “Although the trust’s performance has lagged the UK market in recent years as the environment of higher inflation and interest rates has been detrimental to the valuation of long-duration growth assets, it has has an enviable long-term record.
"The trust’s NAV total return ranks first out of 18 funds in the AIC UK Equity Income sector over the last decade. Train has amassed around a 3 per cent holding in FGT, which is a considerable amount of ‘skin in the game'."
Train’s stake of £40mn and his recent share purchase can be seen in the context of Train personally receiving over £50mn of dividends from Lindsell Train Limited since 2021, the year in which the underperformance began in earnest as US rates began to rise.
Train has, in updates to clients of the trust, remarked that his lack of exposure to energy stocks in the UK has hampered returns in recent years.
Some of the stocks he owns have been at the centre of bid activity recently, he had substantial investor in Hargreaves Lansdown, with that business soon to be acquired by private equity buyers and more recently, Rightmove, which rejected a number of bids from an Australian rival.
david.thorpe@ft.com
