RIT Capital Partners Share News (RCP)

The net asset value (NAV) per share of international investment trust RIT Capital Partners may have declined in the six months to end-September but the trust comfortably beat its benchmark index over the same period.NAV per share at the end of September stood at 1,159.7p, down 1.7% from 1,180.1p at the end of March. Over a full 12 months, however, the NAV is up 9.0% and the half-year performance looked good compared to the MSCI World Index, which lost 5.1%.Since the end of the reporting period markets have picked up, resulting in the NAV per share as at 5 November rising to a record level of 1,190.4p. That's a 2.6% rise since the end of September although in this instance the gain compares unfavourably with the MSCI World Index, which rose 4.1% over the same period.The trust has increased exposure to what it calls the developing and frontier markets to 21.6%, with a particular focus on companies which are beneficiaries of rising domestic demand."Recent unquoted investments in the oil and gas, telecommunications and insurance industries are showing early signs of promise. Agora, the North Sea oil exploration company in which we have invested, will benefit from its participation in one of the most significant North Sea discoveries in many years, the Catcher field. This will strengthen the management team's ability to exploit further opportunities," the company's chairman, Lord Rothschild, said."Our overall exposure to public markets has fallen somewhat, from 67.6% to 55.5%," Rothschild added.During the first half of the financial year the company has taken the opportunity to offload some investments in which it felt less confident, resulting in 11.4% of available liquidity, after repaying all outstanding loans over the period.