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Watch this clip from the latest episode of Trust TV, featuring Alex Barr, Fund
Manager of Henderson Alternative Strategies Trust. Alex discusses the Trust’s
investment’s objective and explains the purpose of the Trust’s alternative
strategies mandate.
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structure, forced him to ditch his
large-cap holdings and left him
stranded in stocks he couldn’t sell.
While his closed-ended fund,
Woodford Patient Capital, is down by
about 70 per cent since launch, this can
be attributed to a 50 per cent discount
and poor stock-picking, rather than
structural problems with the vehicle.
James Carthew, head of investment
company research at Marten & Co,
blames the poor performance of
venture capital on the demise of
Woodford, with only two of eight VCT
sectors posting gains in 2019.
“The whole private equity market
has plunged and there is no good
reason for that, other than a general
fear around illiquidity driven by the
press on Woodford,” he explains.
“Most investors now seem to think
illiquidity is bad, but it’s fine as long
as you are doing it inside a closed-
ended structure and doing it well.”
The fate of the Patient Capital Trust
now lies in the hands of Schroders,
and while its prospects look
uncertain, a rumoured buy-out of
biotechnology stocks by WG Partners
offers some hope.
America first
At a global level, one issue that
continued to dominate the world
of investment trusts in 2019 was
22 / 23
“Most investors now
seem to think illiquidity
is bad, but it’s fine as long
as you are doing it inside
a closed-ended structure
and doing it well”
the ongoing trade war between the
world’s two biggest economies.
“Uncertainty has, once again, been the
big story this year and that has been led
by disintegrating relations between the
US and China,” says Carthew.
Fallout from the dispute – which
has seen huge tariffs placed on
imports between the two countries
PERFORMANCE OF
REGIONAL SECTORS
IN 2019
Sector
Returns (%)
IT North America 23.67
IT Japan 21.57
IT Europe 20.45
IT Global 19.73
IT UK All Companies 16.93
IT Asia Pacific
8.42
Source: FE Analytics
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