F&C Investment Trust AGM

[LooseCannon101]

The AGM was held today - Thursday 2nd May 2019.

Paul Niven gave a thorough explanation of our portfolio's performance, highlighting Private Equity and our US holdings which did particularly well.

He also said that our borrowings are highly diversified over many different maturities, with a very low average rate of 2.5%. He was confident that the growth rate of our portfolio should be substantially higher than this over the next 10 years, as company earnings are increasing and the average US company price-to-earnings ratio is mid-range when compared to historical financial data.

Last year was peculiar in that most financial assets, in all categories, decreased in value. Fortunately, there has been a strong rebound this year. The trust's shares now trade at a small discount, but briefly traded at a premium.

Our outgoing chairman, Simon Fraser, announced his successor - Beatrice Hollond who is currently on the trust's board. Simon was asked by a shareholder about the trust's environmental, social and governance (ESG) policy. He said that BMO Global Asset Management (GAM) increasingly engage with companies and vote to improve their behaviour. The relationship of BMO GAM to us was also explained, with their outgoing CEO being questioned about the excellent share saving scheme - no change planned.

I met with one of the directors after the main meeting held in the grand surroundings of the Merchant Taylor Hall and expressed my gratitude for the continued good performance of the trust. The caterers did not run out of food this year at this most pleasant of venues.

[Dod101]

Thanks for that. ESG is clearly becoming flavour of the year. It was discussed also at the Alliance AGM last week. Alliance has engaged an outfit called Hermes to deal with this on their behalf and to engage with companies they hold shares in if necessary.

Dod

[tjh290633]

Agreed that it was a good meeting. One question asked by a director (Sarah Arkle) over nibbles was about the venue. Everybody in the vicinity said that MT's Hall was far better than the Brewery used last year. The courtyard on a fine day is hard to beat. Witan were there on the previous day, although I didn't attend. They timed their meeting for afternoon tea, of course.

Interesting that they haven't used the discount control mechanism for some time. The share price has got very close to NAV of late.

TJH