The Lemon Fool

One of those cases where the headline results are either disappointing or pretty decent... https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcem ... rt/8077526

On the downside:

FCIT's share price was 962.0 pence representing a total return of 8.1%, against its benchmark, the FTSE All-World Index, of 15.1%.

but on the upside:

The final dividend will be 4.5 pence per share, subject to shareholder approval, and will bring the total dividend for the year to 14.7 pence per share. This will be an 8.9% increase, the 53rd consecutive annual increase.

From a personal POV, I don't much care about arbitrary benchmarks and FCIT is in our "income" IT portfolio not because it produces a large dividend but because what dividend it does give is likely to rise by more than inflation. The dividend is ahead of what I expected so I'm happy!

I am happy with the performance of FCIT for 2023.

Over the long term e.g. 10 years it has outperformed its benchmark - FTSE All World Equity TR Index (see below).

'The Company has delivered a total shareholder return of 203.0% over the ten-year period to the end of 2023, equivalent to 11.7% per annum which compares with a return of 178.6% (equivalent to 10.8% per annum) from our benchmark index.'

The Fund Manager, Paul Niven, owns 200k shares - about £2m, and so has a strong incentive to deliver healthy long-term returns.

Pound-cost averaging and the odd lump sum has worked for me over the past 20 years. It is my only holding.

As others, I hold.

I confess that it's a default holding for me, somewhat like the fact that I hold an index tracker, though FCIT is nothing like an index tracker.

It's a brilliant "boring" investment.

It's not what I will sell to invest in other more interesting things.

Not as brilliant asAlliance in recent years. See my comments under Alliance.

Dod

SebsCat wrote:One of those cases where the headline results are either disappointing or pretty decent... https://www.investegate.co.uk/announcem ... rt/8077526

On the downside:

FCIT's share price was 962.0 pence representing a total return of 8.1%, against its benchmark, the FTSE All-World Index, of 15.1%.

but on the upside:

The final dividend will be 4.5 pence per share, subject to shareholder approval, and will bring the total dividend for the year to 14.7 pence per share. This will be an 8.9% increase, the 53rd consecutive annual increase.

From a personal POV, I don't much care about arbitrary benchmarks and FCIT is in our "income" IT portfolio not because it produces a large dividend but because what dividend it does give is likely to rise by more than inflation. The dividend is ahead of what I expected so I'm happy!

From a very cursory glance, looks to me that the price/nav has dropped from 0% to -10% March 2023/24, so much of the 'lag' of All World Index would seem to be simply down to change in p/nav. Might reasonably expect that to at some point flip the other way around.

I like FCIT and view it as a VEVE alternative.

When at a discount of 5% or more, buy FCIT. Otherwise VEVE.

I have an irrational fondness for FCIT currently, stemming from some well timed selling and repurchasing to take advantage of the discount movements within this reporting period. A notable success and wholly out of character.

W.

Looking at the total return over 5 years of the ITs/ETFs mentioned above (all of which I hold) - using data from Hargreaves Lansdown, rounded to 1%


However - if you look at an S&P 500 Tracker - it has a Total Return of 105%, and a Nasdaq 100 Tracker has a Total Return of 169%
And a FTSE 100 Tracker has returned only 30%
So I suspect the boom in the US market has played a major part in the returns of the Global ITs.
The Developed World Tracker has 65% in the USA, and 4% in the UK.
From this I might have guessed that the ITs listed above with the highest fraction in the USA, and the lowest fraction in the UK will have the highest return
But the opposite is true - Brunner has 43% in the USA, and 25% in the UK
I'm still happily holding all of the above (including the S&P 500 and Nasdaq trackers)
But my purely UK investments are slowly plodding along.

My wife holds all 4 of the above (my selections), and I hold 3 of them. (I don't hold FCIT). (We both also hold VEVE).

I have been pondering increasing my US exposure by adding either VUSA or JAM, but have been waiting for a possible correction/fallback.

I noticed that the board of FCIT are trying to encourage people, especially those under 40, to invest in the trust by various advertisements on TV, social media and in newspapers.

Perhaps the strategy might be better aimed at the directors themselves. Rain Newton-Smith and Julie Tankard own only 165 and 332 shares respectively.

The Columbia Threadneedle Savings Scheme is excellent and cheap (£72 per year for ISA), with no additional fees for monthly direct debit and dividend re-investment.

LooseCannon101 wrote:I noticed that the board of FCIT are trying to encourage people, especially those under 40, to invest in the trust by various advertisements on TV, social media and in newspapers.

Perhaps the strategy might be better aimed at the directors themselves. Rain Newton-Smith and Julie Tankard own only 165 and 332 shares respectively.

The Columbia Threadneedle Savings Scheme is excellent and cheap (£72 per year for ISA), with no additional fees for monthly direct debit and dividend re-investment.

Beatrice Hollond in 2019/2020 held 3,500 shares, 2023/2022 8,020 and 6,752 respectively.

Quintin Price 7,215 in 2020, 12,461 in 2023

So some adding/buying. But at approaching £10/share price the amounts involved are relatively low/small IMO, more indicative of being token rather than heavily in, especially as FCIT is so broadly diversified/general. The chairman (Beatrice) holding £80K of stock value for instance is suggestive of a preference to invest elsewhere herself.

Nicholas Moakes and Sir Roger Bone had more significant skin (£ half mill+) in the game in 2020, but no reference to them in 2023.

The UK based move away from Bank of Montreal (sound/conservative) over to Columbia Threadneedle, perhaps for regulatory localisation, also seems to have directed towards more costs and selling, a element of 'de-conservatism' (not so good) IMO. Somewhat a feeling of a transition of investing for the people over to milking.