13th Feb 2015 07:00
The World Trust Fund
Interim Management Statement
for the quarter ended 31st December 2014
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 October 2014 to 31 December 2014 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 primarily in 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 October 2014 to 31 December 2014:
· The Fund's net asset value (NAV) rose 5.9% to $4.39 in US$ terms (base currency), compared with a rise of 1.0% in the MSCI All Countries World Index.
· The Fund's share price rose in Sterling terms by 9.5% to 245.5 pence.
· The discount to NAV (in Sterling) at the end of the period was 12.9%.
· The Fund's underlying holdings had an average weighted discount of -21.2%.
Long Term Performance:
1-Year | 3-Year** | 5-Year** | 10-Year** | |
Share Price £ | +7.3% | +12.8% | +10.4% | +5.9% |
Share Price US$* | +1.0% | +13.0% | +9.6% | +3.7% |
Net Asset Value £* | +10.2% | +13.5% | +9.3% | +5.7% |
Net Asset Value US$ | +3.5% | +13.7% | +8.4% | +3.5% |
MSCI All Countries World US$ | +4.2% | +14.1% | +9.2%
| +6.1%
|
MSCI All Countries World Ex USA | -3.9% | +9.0% | +4.4% | +5.1% |
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 (%): | 31/12/14 | 30/09/14 |
Citic Securities | 9.6% | 6.2% |
BB Biotech | 6.9% | 5.5% |
General American Investors | 5.9% | 6.6% |
First Pacific Co Ltd | 5.9% | 6.5% |
Eurazeo | 5.6% | 6.0% |
Top 5 Regional Breakdown (%) | 31/12/14 | 30/09/14 |
Asia ex Japan | 32.4% | 29.0% |
Europe (ex UK) | 18.3% | 20.6% |
North America | 29.2% | 20.0% |
Japan | 8.9% | 9.4% |
United Kingdom | 8.2% | 7.3% |
31/12/14 | 30/09/14 | |
Long Exposure | 105.6% | 99.1% |
Short Exposure | -0.2% | -0.9% |
Net Exposure | 105.4% | 98.2% |
Top 10 Country Weightings (%)
| 31/12/14 |
United States | 28.8% |
China | 17.4% |
Japan | 8.9% |
United Kingdom | 8.2% |
Switzerland | 5.2% |
France | 4.9% |
Philippines | 4.1% |
Singapore | 3.4% |
Sweden | 2.8% |
Indonesia | 2.1% |
Leverage:
As at 31 December 2014 the Fund was using 5.6% of leverage.
Material Transactions and Events:
Since the period end the Fund paid a dividend of 0.50p per share on 16 January 2015 to shareholders on its register on 19 December 2014.
Related Shares:
WTR.L