Investment Manager’s Commentary

Your Fund returned +4.3% during the month compared to -0.2% for the IA Global sector (TR).
Several commentators have noted (bemoaned?) that global equity returns have been driven by a handful of technology companies. Your Fund has benefitted from the ownership of several of these. Meta Platforms and Microsoft were among the Fund’s top five contributors to returns in the month. Their latest quarterly earnings highlighted resilient growth, improving cost efficiency and expansive possibilities unlocked by advances in AI.
But tech stocks are not the whole story behind the Fund’s returns. Three of the other five largest positive contributors to the Fund’s returns in April are all healthcare companies, including Roche, the Fund’s top contributor. The Fund’s investments here are slower growing than the portfolio’s average, but they play an important role in providing a defensive stream of cash flows at a time of high macro-economic uncertainty. The companies are also selected for their ability to develop new products that address unmet medical needs and support future growth. Yet in recent months their share prices had given these companies little credit for their scope to innovate. This is changing. Novartis’s shares have moved higher this year in part because of new clinical data showing the company’s existing breast cancer therapy is effective in earlier lines of treatment, significantly increasing the addressable market for the drug. Medtronic’s shares have bounced back as manufacturing issues for its diabetes devices are resolved and a new generation of insulin pumps gained approval in the US. Roche’s recent results showcased the growth of 19 new drugs launched since 2015, which should allow the company to grow to the end of the decade even without the launch of any further medicines – an unlikely scenario given Roche’s strong track record for innovation. In short, we are encouraged by these trends and see further potential for the Fund’s healthcare companies to contribute to the portfolio’s resilience, diversity and value.

Past performance is not a guide to the future. The value of the shares and the income from them can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount originally invested. Source: Yealand Fund Services Limited, NAV to NAV in sterling with net income reinvested. Returns are shown net of annual management charge, other expenses and net income reinvested. Returns do not include the effect of initial charges.

Investment Objective and Policy

The Company’s investment objective is to seek to achieve long term (at least 5 years) capital growth with some potential for income.

To achieve the investment objective, the Company’s investment policy is to invest principally (at least 80%) in a portfolio of global equities, and may also invest in other transferable securities, bonds (both corporate and government debt securities), collective investment schemes (“CIS”), warrants, money market instruments, cash, near cash and deposits. The Company may borrow and may enter into underwriting arrangements. It is the ACD’s intention that derivatives and forward currency transactions will only be used for the purposes of efficient portfolio management, including hedging, as defined by the Regulations.

The Company is actively managed and has, with the exception of the above noted minimum, no limit to which it can be invested in each sector or asset type, nor is there any particular geographic focus. The Portfolio Manager has full flexibility to adjust the proportion of the property of the Company depending on their view of market conditions and the assets which it believes are most likely to achieve the Company’s investment objective. From time to time the liquidity of the Company may be increased substantially if judged to be in the interests of investors.

The Company may invest in CIS which have different investment strategies or restrictions than the Company, including the ability to invest in derivatives for investment purposes and to gain exposure to assets which are not expressly listed above. Investment in CIS will usually be limited to those which invest primarily in the assets listed above and without exception, CIS will only be held in so far as the rules permit the Company to gain exposure to the assets held by those CIS.

A Glossary of Definitions which provides definitions to some of the technical language used on this website is available from www.yealand.com/policies.

Comparator Benchmark

To gauge the relative performance of the Fund, Shareholders may compare the Fund’s performance against the Investment Association’s Global Sector. This is not a performance target nor constrains the way in which the Fund is managed. For further information on the Sector and its intended use, please refer to the Fund’s Prospectus.