End of year values

[Dod101]

The market has now closed for the year and I have just checked my end of year values. My portfolio now stands at its highest ever value and is up just over 12% on the year. 2020's spectacular share, Scottish Mortgage is up just over 10% at £13.39 which were it not for being Scottish Mortgage we would surely regard as fine even although there is only a token dividend. I need to do a lot more analysis but that can I think wait for now.

Dod

[ReformedCharacter]

My portfolio is largely for generating income and is up 9.2% in value and income per unit is up 29.83%. Unilever seems to have disappointed in terms of capital performance this year. I can't complain though.

Happy New Year to everyone and thank you for another year of interesting posts, much appreciated.

RC

[monabri]

2020 was a pretty dire year mainly for the numerous dividend cuts and "rebasing". March 2020 witnessed the antonym in terms of valuation but valuation was restored by year end.

2021 has been a good year for further share price increase and my diverse portfolio ended up 14.9% higher than at the close of last year. I did note, however, that the portfolio value initially peaked on 15th June 2021 and then dipped towards the end of November (on news of the 'Omicron' variant) only to undergo a minor Christmas rally as fear of the Omicron reduced. (edit: all dividends reinvested)

On reflection, I'm not very impressed with my management skills - I would have been better sticking it all in a FTSE 100 tracker in terms of total return.
(shades of "ARBIT").

https://uk.investing.com/indices/ftse-100-total-return




ARBIT - ARB's income IT tracking.

[Dod101]

I might have added that although I do not unitise neither do I add new money and my income for 2021 is now almost exactly back to 2019 levels after a 14% dip in 2020. I am primarily an income investor although you might not think it as my trailing yield (Dividends paid in the year against year end values) was only 3.7%. I am suffering on the income front from the significant cuts in dividends from Shell, Imperial Brands and HSBC since 2019.

Dod

[SalvorHardin]

Up by just under 27% (plus or minus whatever my American and Canadian shares do today). Beats the FTSE100 but then again I've got a lot in American and Canadian shares (but not the big tech stocks which dominate the S&P500). 1% under my all-time high.

The biggest contribution (about 8% of the 27%) came from the entertainment conglomerate ViacomCBS which I sold in March. Its shares had risen from $40 to over $100 by then, mostly thanks to the family office Archegos Capital Management taking out a huge debt funded position in several companies (one being ViacomCBS), driving up the price in a textbook short squeeze. When it emerged that the fund's manager had concealed these loans using swaps, the debts were called in forcing Archegos to dump its ViacomCBS shares on the market to cover the calls (which hammered the share price).

ViacomCBS are currently $30.70 as I type this, I bought back in at just under $30 a few days ago (I still reckon that the consolidation of the streaming video market makes ViacomCBS a decent takeover target

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archegos_Capital_Management

Other major contributors were Moderna (+113%, though I've been in and out of these quite a bit and didn't get all of that), Canada's Brookfield Asset Management (+48%), Lionsgate Entertainment (+40.8%), Berkshire Hathaway (+31%), my biggest holding Union Pacific (+21.4% plus dividends) and Bank of Montreal (+41.8% plus dividends)

Notable British performers were Diageo (+40.3% plus dividends) and Caledonia Investments (+41.4% plus dividends) which will surprise the many posters who've written Caledonia off as a boring low performance investment trust.

The big British laggard was Unilever (-10.2% plus dividends) which I've put on the naughty step and am considering selling in the New Year. Unilever's management increasingly uses the business to push their own political agendas, whilst Ben & Jerry's boycott of Israel meant that many American institutions were forced to sell their Unilever shares (and bonds) because of American laws against boycotting Israel. They've taken their eye off the ball, in contrast to its closest competitor Procter & Gamble (+18% plus dividends). Finsbury Growth & Income IT was up just 4.8%, but that isn't surprising since several of its holdings, notably Unilever and the London Stock Exchange, had bad years.

Disney (-12.4%) has been badly hit, with the pandemic closing down its big earning theme parks for much of the year. But Disney has gone out of its way to upset much of its audience by shoving identity politics into much of its output, including sports on ESPN, forgetting that much of its audience want to be entertained not lectured and scolded. It was telling that 2021's big cinematic success, "Spider-Man: No Way Home" didn't push woke politics. Disney's treatment of its second-biggest franchise, Star Wars, has been very poor. In particular the recent films, where the "creative teams" went out of their way to alienate much of the existing fanbase. The Disney+ series, "The Mandalorian", which is basically a Spaghetti western set in the Star Wars universe, has however repaired some of the damage.

Good luck to all in 2022

[77ss]

2020 was a pretty dire year mainly for the numerous dividend cuts and "rebasing". March 2020 witnessed the antonym in terms of valuation but valuation was restored by year end.

2021 has been a good year for further share price increase and my diverse portfolio ended up 14.9% higher than at the close of last year. I did note, however, that the portfolio value initially peaked on 15th June 2021 and then dipped towards the end of November (on news of the 'Omicron' variant) only to undergo a minor Christmas rally as fear of the Omicron reduced. (edit: all dividends reinvested)

On reflection, I'm not very impressed with my management skills - I would have been better sticking it all in a FTSE 100 tracker in terms of total return........

It has been an interesting couple of years, but that's the way the world works.

How bad was 2020 in fact? If your focus is on steadily rising dividend income then bad, maybe. Dire otherwise? I wouldn't say so - my capital rose. 2018 was much worse for me. Like you, 2021 has seen a decent rise in my portfolio value - one didn't have to do anything clever for that.

A tracker may well be a good idea - I think about it occasionally and have done quite well in the past with a 250 tracker, but I certainly would not choose the FT100 to follow. There are a number of ETFs that track (for example) the MSCI Global Index which I feel is much more interesting.

[AlumniLawn]

I don't invest for income at all and have focused quite a bit more on defensive funds some four months ago but am very pleased with my 15.7% return for the year. As I am withdrawing some funds but topping up our SIPP allowances I use unitisation to work out the change. This comes on top of 14.8% for 2020 and 17.7% in 2019 so a very good three years.

[richfool]

Over the 12 months to 31st December 2021, my portfolio has grown by 16.33%. The portfolio includes growth and income IT's, 85% income v 15% growth holdings).

The best performers in my portfolio, in terms of capital appreciation (for the period I have held them, i.e. not just over the last 12 months) are:

Income focused trusts:
WHR (Warehouse REIT) +75%
JGGI (JP Morgan Global Growth & Income) +62%
BERI (Blackrock Energy & Resources Income trust) +39%
EGL (Ecofin Global Utilities & Infrastructure) +38%
MCT (Middlefield Canadian Income trust) +35%

Growth focused trusts:
BRGE (Blackrock Greater Europe) +37.5%
VOF (Vietnam Opportunities fund) +32%

[GrahamPlatt]

Over the 12 months to 31st December 2021, my portfolio has grown by 16.33%. The portfolio includes growth and income IT's, 85% income v 15% growth holdings).

The best performers in my portfolio, in terms of capital appreciation (for the period I have held them, i.e. not just over the last 12 months) are:

Income focused trusts:
WHR (Warehouse REIT) +75%
JGGI (JP Morgan Global Growth & Income) +62%
BERI (Blackrock Energy & Resources Income trust) +39%
EGL (Ecofin Global Utilities & Infrastructure) +38%
MCT (Middlefield Canadian Income trust) +35%

Growth focused trusts:
BRGE (Blackrock Greater Europe) +37.5%
VOF (Vietnam Opportunities fund) +32%

Interesting that - the growth focussed trusts have all underperformed each and every income focussed trust.

Oh, yeah https://www.dictionary.com/browse/focus ....
“verb (used with object), fo·cused, fo·cus·ing or (especially British) fo·cussed, fo·cus·sing.”

[Arborbridge]

Well, the closing figures are quite pleasant, but for a full report I will come back later.

However, the short form state of affairs is as follows:-

YoY HYP unit price is up 12.3% while the actual capital is up 18.4%

The year ended on a high, but not the high which was in August when the unit price was 136.36p (now 135.07p)

As regards ARBIT, the results are:-

YoY unit price up 9.2% while the actual capital is up 15.2% .

The year end was a unit price of 177.74p. Like HYP, this wasn't quite on the high set in June of 178.46p

Incidentally, the year end capital is comfortably above both year end 2018, 2019 and 2020 so in times of stress on the portfolios, I believe this is pretty creditable.
Quite nice to see that in terms of actual cash invested, both portfolios have grown despite taking a fair pension from them. (The OEICS portfolio I haven't checked yet, but I don't drawndown from that one and it is relatively small - I expect it has grown too).

So, I've off to get the bubbly ready and watch film. Happy New year to you all.

Arb.

[monabri]

The UK trackers (iShares ISF and Vanguard's VUKE) versus Vanguard's VUSA S&P500. Total Returns in 2021.

[dealtn]

Over the 12 months to 31st December 2021, my portfolio has grown by 16.33%. The portfolio includes growth and income IT's, 85% income v 15% growth holdings).

The best performers in my portfolio, in terms of capital appreciation (for the period I have held them, i.e. not just over the last 12 months) are:

Income focused trusts:
WHR (Warehouse REIT) +75%
JGGI (JP Morgan Global Growth & Income) +62%
BERI (Blackrock Energy & Resources Income trust) +39%
EGL (Ecofin Global Utilities & Infrastructure) +38%
MCT (Middlefield Canadian Income trust) +35%

Growth focused trusts:
BRGE (Blackrock Greater Europe) +37.5%
VOF (Vietnam Opportunities fund) +32%

Interesting that - the growth focussed trusts have all underperformed each and every income focussed trust.

Only meaningful if we also know the holding period though. Otherwise how can a claim for underperformance be made?

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Highest value for the fund achieved today.

5 years growth 9.6% p.a. net - noting the fund has been moved very recently into what should be a better performing fund over the next 5 years.

Up 18.8% in the last year.

Growth fund with no dividends.

Fund still very short of where it needs to be - but I can't complain with this years growth and with some luck the Gods may look down upon us this year a little more favourably

AiY

[pje16]

My whole portfolio (pensions included) hit their all time high last month, dipped a bit and are not far off the best as 31 Dec
2021 was a good year for that (not much else owing to Covid) but there are some positives

[Dod101]

My individual successes were Segro up 47.53%, Caledonia up 40.3%, Diageo up 40.2%, RIT up 33% and Shell up 28.86%. As SalvorHardin said, who would have thought that Caledonia, and RIT for that matter would be leaders in the UK pack?

My only overseas share is T D Bank up 36.77% and the real disaster was BG China Growth -29.73% although it is a very small holding. I am happy to continue to hold Unilever because no share goes up for ever.

These are all capital values only and in some cases there are quite attractive dividends on top.

I plan to sell my remaining HFEL which capital wise is hopeless and I am simply not prepared to take a big capital loss no matter how good the dividend is. Will probably buy another Canadian bank, although I like the sound of Brookfield. I am a bit concerned about its foray into London offices but I expect that is a small part of its portfolio and in any case that they are looking long term.

Dod

[SalvorHardin]

Will probably buy another Canadian bank, although I like the sound of Brookfield. I am a bit concerned about its foray into London offices but I expect that is a small part of its portfolio and in any case that they are looking long term.

The London offices are a small bit of Brookfield's business. Bear in mind that Brookfield manages a huge amount of clients' assets (about $650 billion, almost 7 times its market capitalisation).

Seeking Alpha is the best place for stuff about Brookfield, followed by the Manlobbi's Descent board on TMF (American, not UK). It doesn't yield much though. Many posters on TMF's Berkshire Hathaway board own Brookfield shares.

https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BAM

https://boards.fool.com/manlobbis-descent-121700.aspx

Be careful if you're thinking of investing in Brookfield's higher yielding quoted subsidiaries (e.g. Brookfield Infrastructure). Their shares are Limited Partnerships, which makes their dividends earned income so a Canadian tax return is needed (some of Brookfield's subsidiaries now issue conventional shares as well, thus avoiding this problem). I only hold Brookfield Asset Management, which is a conventional ordinary share.

American and Canadian LLP shares can be a nightmare for UK investors because their dividends are classed as earnings from self-employment by both countries.

[Dod101]

Will probably buy another Canadian bank, although I like the sound of Brookfield. I am a bit concerned about its foray into London offices but I expect that is a small part of its portfolio and in any case that they are looking long term.

The London offices are a small bit of Brookfield's business. Bear in mind that Brookfield manages a huge amount of clients' assets (about $650 billion, almost 7 times its market capitalisation).

Seeking Alpha is the best place for stuff about Brookfield, followed by the Manlobbi's Descent board on TMF (American, not UK). It doesn't yield much though. Many posters on TMF's Berkshire Hathaway board own Brookfield shares.

https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BAM

https://boards.fool.com/manlobbis-descent-121700.aspx

Be careful if you're thinking of investing in Brookfield's higher yielding quoted subsidiaries (e.g. Brookfield Infrastructure). Their shares are Limited Partnerships, which makes their dividends earned income so a Canadian tax return is needed (some of Brookfield's subsidiaries now issue conventional shares as well, thus avoiding this problem). I only hold Brookfield Asset Management, which is a conventional ordinary share.

American and Canadian LLP shares can be a nightmare for UK investors because their dividends are classed as earnings from self-employment by both countries.

Many thanks for all that great advice. Yes I am aware about LLPs and would only buy the Brookfield parent (BAM) I have a cousin who is an accountant based near Toronto who is well up on this sort of thing, although she advised buying TD Bank. It has been a great investment looking at it with UK eyes but of course other Canadian banks have been even better!

Dod

[monabri]

Banks...Lloyds total return in 2021 was 35% , Natwest 40%....HSBC..21%....it just goes to show that 1 year performance can flatter to deceive.

[Dod101]

Banks...Lloyds total return in 2021 was 35% , Natwest 40%....HSBC..21%....it just goes to show that 1 year performance can flatter to deceive.

And that of course is the problem with looking at one year returns. probably a monkey with a dart could have done well last year.

Dod

[Newroad]

Happy New Year, Dod et al!

For me the total return performances were approximately

ISAs: (At tad under) 12.7%
JISAs: (A tad over) 13.7%
SIPPs: 12.6%

The reason for the imprecision is

1. I have only been unitising since 30th June (so next year's should be bang on), and
2. I caught the upside of MYI in the JISAs until switching it for MNP in June, and caught the upside of WTAN in the ISAs until switching it for MWY in July (though, as it happens, MWY also performed well prior to the WTAN sale)

Those portfolios have been "carrying" around 30%/20%/30% percent respectively bonds, so an OK'ish risk adjusted performance.

Regards, Newroad