Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust (LON:FRCL) is the oldest investment trust and is celebrating its 150th anniversary. Dividends have been paid every year since the fund was launched and 2017 marked the 47th consecutive annual increase. The board has proposed a subtle change in the name of the trust to F&C Investment Trust and this will be voted on at the April 2018 AGM.
FRCL offers investors a diversified ‘one-stop-shop’ for investment in both listed and unlisted global equities. The trust had a strong set of results in FY17, with most of its underlying strategies outperforming their respective benchmarks. In terms of NAV and share price total return, FRCL is outperforming its benchmark over one, three and five years (its share price is also outperforming over 10 years).
Investment strategy: Global equity ‘one-stop-shop’
FRCL invests in a range of strategies that are managed either internally or by third parties: regional (US growth, US value, Europe, UK and Japan); global (income, smaller companies and multi-manager); and private equity (funds and direct). The trust offers investors very broad exposure; as a result of direct, fund and private equity positions, FRCL has around 500 holdings. Gearing of up to 20% of NAV is permitted; it was 7.0% at end-February 2018.
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