- 35 investment companies with over 70 years of history
- “The most platinum investment opportunity of them all”
As the UK prepares to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee on Sunday 6 February, figures from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) demonstrate that almost a quarter of investment companies by assets (£63 billion) were in existence at the time of the Queen’s accession to the throne some 70 years ago. In fact, many investment companies have been around since the late nineteenth century and continue to thrive, demonstrating the sector’s durability.
Annabel Brodie-Smith, Communications Director, Association of Investment Companies (AIC), said: “It’s a testament to the investment company sector that 35 companies were around at the time of the Queen’s accession to the throne and are still delivering excellent long-term performance to shareholders.
“It’s reassuring for investors to see that over the last 70 years, investment companies have survived bouts of market turbulence including the 1973 to 74 crash, Black Monday in 1987, the dot-com boom and bust, the financial crisis and the pandemic. Since the first investment company launched in 1868, the industry has weathered two World Wars and the Great Depression.
“Investment companies have pioneered investing in a wide range of assets including emerging markets, renewable energy infrastructure and unquoted companies. They also have unique income advantages and the benefit of an independent board of directors to look after shareholders’ interests, qualities that stand them in good stead for the future.”
John Newlands, Founder of Newlands Fund Research and Investment Trust Historian, said: “Fads, fashions and arcane financial schemes have come and gone over the past 70 years and more – everything from precipice bonds to sub-prime mortgages to the bursting of the internet bubble 20 years ago. Investment companies have long been founded on stronger, indeed granite-like foundations, their robustness tracing to the geniuses who devised and launched them almost 150 years ago, including the legal giants Philip Rose and Lord Westbury and, north of the Scottish border, Robert Fleming, son of an impoverished mill worker in Dundee.
“Private investors, whether wealthy or of ‘moderate means’ should look no further than the most platinum investment opportunity of them all, namely the opportunity to place their savings in a spread of quality investment companies.”
Investment companies launched at least 70 years ago. All performance data is share price total return (SPTR) to 31 January 2022. Source: AIC using Morningstar. View here.
