27th Mar 2019 17:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - Henderson Eurotrust PLC said Wednesday said outperforming its benchmark in the first half of its year was "scant consolidation" after a particularly tough period for equity markets.
The European investor, which does not invest in UK companies, said its net asset value per share total return for the six months ended January 31 was negative 9.5%.
The FTSE World Europe Index, excluding the UK, had a negative 9.8% total return meaning that Henderson Eurotrust's performance was just slightly ahead of its benchmark.
The company's net asset value per share fell to 1,106.8 pence on January 1 from 1,230.2p the year before, in a period that contained "the worst quarter for equity markets since 2011".
The company will pay an interim dividend of 8.0p per share, flat from the year before, on April 26.
Henderson Eurotrust Fund Manager Jamie Ross said: "Over the first six months of the financial year, the company's net asset value fell by 9.5% whilst the index declined by slightly more; this has been a very difficult period for equity markets and delivering 0.3% of relative outperformance is scant consolation to us."
Ross was previously joint fund manager but took over as Henderson Eurotrust's soul fund manager on February 2018 after Tim Stevenson departed.
"We remain focused on finding the best opportunities within each of our three areas of focus and have started the second half of the financial year well," Ross said.
Shares in Henderson Eurotrust closed up 0.5% at 1,050.00 pence on Wednesday.