12 Aug 2015 07:00
The World Trust Fund
Interim Management Statement
for the quarter ended 30th June 2015
The World Trust Fund (the "Fund") is publishing this Interim Management Statement in accordance with the Luxembourg law of 11 January 2008 on Transparency requirements (the "Transparency law").
This Interim Management Statement has been produced solely to provide additional information to shareholders as a body to meet the relevant requirements of the Transparency law. It should not be relied upon by any other party or for any other purpose.
This Interim Management Statement relates to the period from 1 April 2015 to 30 June 2015 and contains information that covers this period and the period up to the date of publication of this Interim Management Statement.
The Fund aims to achieve long-term capital appreciation by investing in companies, in the main closed-end investment companies, whose shares trade at a discount to their underlying net asset value and are listed on international exchanges. For hedging purposes the Fund may also sell short stock indices, stocks, and shares of exchange-traded funds or closed-end funds, not exceeding 100% of the Fund's net assets.
Highlights:
Over the 3 month period from 1 April 2015 to 30 June 2015:
· The Fund's net asset value (NAV) rose 2.6% to $4.706 in US$ terms (base currency), compared with a rise of 0.4% in the MSCI All Countries World Index.
· The Fund's share price fell in Sterling terms by -1.4% to 266.5 pence.
· The discount to NAV (in Sterling) at the end of the period was 11.0%.
· The Fund's underlying holdings had an average weighted discount of -22.5%.
Long Term Performance:
1-Year | 3-Year** | 5-Year** | 10-Year** | |
Share Price £ | +20.1% | +14.3% | +9.7% | +5.4% |
Share Price US$* | +10.2% | +14.4% | +10.8% | +4.0% |
Net Asset Value £* | +20.5% | +13.7% | +10.1% | +5.4% |
Net Asset Value US$ | +10.9% | +13.8% | +11.2% | +4.0% |
MSCI All Countries World US$ | + 0.7% | +13.0% | +11.9%
| +6.4%
|
MSCI All Countries World Ex USA | - 5.3% | +9.4% | +7.8% | +5.5% |
The MSCI All Countries World index is shown solely for the purpose of performance comparison, and in no way reflects the composition of the portfolio.
*Converted using Foreign Exchange rate used by the administrator.
** Annualized.
Top Five Holdings (%): | 30/06/15 | 31/03/15 |
BB Biotech | 6.8% | 7.2% |
JPMorgan European Smaller | 5.5% | 5.2% |
General American Investors | 5.5% | 5.6% |
Eurazeo | 5.1%
| 5.2% |
First Pacific Co Ltd | 4.6% | 5.7% |
Top 5 Regional Breakdown (%) | 30/06/15 | 31/03/15 |
Asia ex Japan | 24.7% | 22.7% |
Europe (ex UK) | 19.9% | 20.7% |
North America | 29.3% | 30.8% |
Japan | 9.2% | 9.6% |
United Kingdom | 9.4% | 8.0% |
30/06/15 | 31/03/15 | |
Long Exposure | 98.0% | 97.2% |
Short Exposure | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Net Exposure | 98.0% | 97.2% |
Top 10 Country Weightings (%)
| 30/06/15 |
United States | 28.9% |
United Kingdom | 9.4% |
Japan | 9.2% |
China | 7.6% |
Switzerland | 5.7% |
France | 5.2% |
Sweden | 4.3% |
Philippines | 3.4% |
Singapore | 2.9% |
Vietnam | 2.1% |
Leverage:
As at 30 June 2015 the Fund had no leverage.
Material Transactions and Events:
Since the period end the Fund announced that it intends to pay, subject to shareholder approval, a final dividend of 2.9p per share on 18 September 2015 to shareholders on its register on 21 August 2015.