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Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust changes chair, reduces Nvidia stake

8th Nov 2024 08:41

(Alliance News) - Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC on Friday announced changes to board leadership, while saying its half-year rise in net asset value fell short of its benchmark's.

The investor in growth companies globally is managed by Baillie Gifford & Co and has stakes in big technology stocks such as Nvidia Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Amazon.com Inc, and TikTok-owner ByteDance Ltd.

However, on Friday, Scottish Mortgage said it has reduced it position in Nvidia, the leading designer of semiconductors for artificial intelligence, despite believing AI will be "a transformative general-purpose technology".

"The primary challenge hindering large-scale AI adoption remains the high cost. Companies must find ways to offer competitively priced AI systems while managing the skyrocketing costs of training them. This raises concerns about the sustainability of current capital equipment spending, including Nvidia chips," commented Tom Slater of Baillie Gifford.

On the other hand, Scottish Mortgage has increased its positing in Meta. "AI will improve Meta's products and its business model provides many options for funding the necessary computing capacity. Its leadership team has a strong track record of successfully integrating technology innovations, giving us confidence in their strategy moving forward," Slater said.

Scottish Mortgage didn't provide details of Nvidia and Meta stake changes.

Scottish Mortgage said NAV with debt at fair value rose by 1.9% in the six months that ended September 30, compared to a 3.6% increase for the FTSE All-World Index, both in total return terms. NAV was 928.1 pence per share at the end of September, up from 911.3p at the end of March.

Scottish Mortgage held its interim dividend unchanged at 1.60p.

The company also said Justin Dowley will step down as chair at its annual general meeting in 2025, which is scheduled for July 3. He will be replaced by Christopher Samuel, who will join the Scottish Mortgage board as a non-executive director on January 1.

Samuel was the chief executive of Ignis Asset Management. He currently is chair of Blackrock Throgmorton Trust PLC and a non-executive director of wealth manager Quilter PLC.

Senior Independent Director Patrick Maxwell will follow Dowley out, stepping down at the AGM in 2026, the company said, adding it will announce a successor.

Scottish Mortgage shares were up marginally at 911.08 pence early Friday in London.

By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor

Comments and questions to [email protected]

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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