Finsbury Growth & Income

[Dod101]

The investment portfolio for this trust is managed by Nick Train and as he says he seldom makes any changes even to the extent of retaining Pearson (for which he apologises in the Annual Report) What interested me though is that he has bought into Manchester United, not for their footballing skills (which is just as well) but for their brand which he considers to be significantly under valued. Finsbury does not have many investments but they are all world wide brand names and this trust has done very well over the least few years, notwithstanding Pearson.

I am not sure that I will get to the AGM at the end of January, but I would like to hear Nick Train in person and I would love to know why, since he acknowledges that Pearson was a mistake, he does not now simply sell.

Available at http://www.finsburygt.com/

Dod

[forlesen]

It sounds like Nick Train has already had to apologise to investors over Pearson at both the last two AGMs.
http://citywire.co.uk/money/grumpy-nick ... gy/a987770

I don't think much has changed since then, except that Pearson's share price has recovered significantly since the January low point.

I've never been particularly convinced about Pearson's potential for world domination in the online education market, which has been Nick Train's reason for continuing to hold, but I prefer to judge an IT like Finsbury Growth and Income (FGT) on its overall strategy and results, not on specific wins or losses. On that front, FGT has had another year of out-performance over the IT Equity Income sector. Hopefully the good overall performance over the last 1 year, 3 year, 5 year, ... periods will continue!

[GJHarney]

Didn't Train say recently somewhere that he holds on to Pearson as a reminder of his fallibility or something?

As to Man U shares, madness in my view while they are effectively 'B' shares to the Glaziers 'A' share holdings (with inbuilt 10 times more per share voting rights), and given the iffy looking use of Man U by the Glaziers to leverage debt on their other businesses not something that I would ever trust or be comfortable with (even leaving aside the fact it is Man U!). I guess Train sees some large potential growth in far east merchandising links, this is probably true, but until the ownership structure of Man U is altered it is equally probably true that little will flow to investors like Train.

[JMN2]

Didn't Train say recently somewhere that he holds on to Pearson as a reminder of his fallibility or something?

...

If he did say that then to me it tells that he is of the same philosophical school of fund management as Hugh Hendry - always pondering, questioning, not being afraid to look indecisive, having stamp collecting characteristics. I like it.

[runnygum]

Im glad those guys both like their investors to pay for their lessons.

Id suggest it would be somewhat better to write themselves a sticky note if they need reminding of anything.