Abrdn New India Investment Share Discussion Threads

[18bt] 23/4/2024 15:40

Ironic that ANII has outperformed IGC on a 1 year basis and ANII is still >200% return over 10 years

[18bt] 23/4/2024 15:38

Citywire today:
23 Apr, 2024
Martin Gilbert-linked India trust seeks Abrdn fund merger
India Capital Growth, whose Ocean Dial fund manager is part of Aberdeen Asset Management founder Martin Gilbert’s new group, has made merger approaches to Abrdn New India.

Abrdn New India (ANII) is under pressure to become the fifth Abrdn trust to merge in the past 13 months as rivals circle the serial underperformer.

India Capital Growth (IGC), a £159m better-performing mid-cap fund, is understood to have made several approaches to Abrdn New India this year about combining with the £439m listed large-cap fund.

A source with knowledge of the situation said that JP Morgan, whose £814m Indian (JII) investment trust is the sector’s largest but worst-performing fund, had also shown interest in a combination with New India, which marks its 20th anniversary this year. However, New India may also be looking at a merger with another JPM trust.

New India, chaired by Michael Hughes, the former Barclays Capital and BZW stockbroker, has not responded to Elisabeth Scott (pictured above), the chair of India Capital Growth. It is said to prefer a merger with stablemate Abrdn Asia Focus (AAS), a £486m smaller companies fund run by Hugh Young until last year.

If it were to happen, a merger with India Capital Growth would put the assets of New India back within the fold of Martin Gilbert, the co-founder of Aberdeen Asset Management in 1982 who established the company as a leading investment trust provider and oversaw the launch of the single country fund in 2004.

Since stepping down as chief executive of Aberdeen following its 2017 merger with Standard Life, Gilbert (pictured below) has led fund management consolidator AssetCo (ASTO). Last year it bought India Capital Growth’s investment adviser Ocean Dial Asset Management, putting it within the River and Mercantile business that Gilbert bought in 2022, which has recently rebranded as River Global.

Abrdn declined to comment specifically on New India but said: ‘In these volatile markets with a dearth of IPO activity, it is no surprise to see approaches across the investment company sector. Boards are often approached informally but we can’t comment on individual trusts and indeed the variability of market performance often means that any such thoughts quickly change.’

Corporate activity between investment companies has shot up in the past 18 months as boards respond to shareholder dissatisfaction at a sector-wide de-rating that has seen shares in many listed funds trade well below asset value.
India trusts

In the India sector, IGC stands on an 11% discount and ANII and JII trade on discounts of 18% and 20% below net asset value.

Ashoka India Equity (AIE) is the only one of the four to trade on a premium of 4% above NAV. This reflects the £357m mid-cap fund’s superior performance. Under Prashant Khemka of White Oak Capital Management, it has returned 155% to shareholders over three years, beating IGC’s 78%, although the latter’s 10-year return of 313% under Ocean Dial’s Gaurav Narain (pictured below) is the best in the sector.

JII, run by JPMorgan’s Amit Mehta and Sandip Patodia following the recent move off the trust by Ayaz Ebrahim, has returned 211% over 10 years, while ANII, managed by Kristy Fong and James Thom at Abrdn, has generated 224%. Both trail the 239% of the MSCI India index.

[bitgold] 07/1/2024 16:29

very quiet board - this trust has been on a 20% discount for ages, which was good investment trigger and now begun to narrow.

[essentialinvestor] 31/3/2023 15:36

Discount over 20% again, added some.

[dlp6666] 29/12/2022 09:55

I noticed that a recent Moneyweek magazine considered ANII its favourite trust for India but performance looks well under-par compared to its benchmark index and certainly inferior to Ashoka Indian Equity (AIE).

I know the latter does have a 30% performance fee but seems to offer superior returns.

Any thoughts why ANII is preferred (apart from its big, seemingly immovable, discount!)?

[betman] 21/12/2022 12:31

Hi essential
Agreed its a 5 year term and conditional on underperforming an index.

[essentialinvestor] 20/12/2022 18:09

Tender offer is mot immediate and is conditional, details are in the report

[betman] 20/12/2022 17:19

The discount is still very high , about 18%. The company has been buying back shares and also has announced a tender offer for 25% of holdings at NAV so why has the discount not disappeared ?
Quite apart from the discount the Indian demographics are positive and reshoring from China to India ( like Apple / Foxconn ) would suggest a good investment case. Negatives might be the government closeness to Putin and impacts of Global warming ?

Any insights welcome

[essentialinvestor] 03/11/2022 12:36

Looks very cheap with £ plunging.

[essentialinvestor] 02/11/2022 12:40

Discount to NAV around 23%!. Added.

[essentialinvestor] 23/4/2021 13:36

Share price is around 7% lower than my last post.

May be worth a look under £4.80, 0r £4.70 type area?.

No guarantees that will happen.

[essentialinvestor] 25/3/2021 12:18

I've recently sold out due to reports of cases in India increasing again.

India has had a good pandemic to this point, puts our number of deaths to shame,
India though helped by a younger demographic tbf, but still.

[lageraemia] 05/1/2021 14:48

still going......

[lageraemia] 15/12/2020 15:36

Well that escalated quickly.......we're off on one right now!

[essentialinvestor] 18/11/2020 15:34

Added a few today, hopefully a run at £5 shortly.

[essentialinvestor] 07/4/2020 21:31

Hi Joe, bought a very small amount of Page on Friday, sold that yesterday,
up another 6% today!.

[contrarian joe] 07/4/2020 21:26

Me to,sold quite a lot of stuff yesterday doh,to have a good % in cash, it's cost me!!.whether it happens or not am waiting for a return to lows,as warren buffet says I haven't got a clue what markets are going to do in the short term.It looks bleak out there,for some reason it becomes easier to slip into an outcome based mindset during bear markets.

[essentialinvestor] 07/4/2020 20:56

Thanks Joe. A few down days for markets would suit me.

[contrarian joe] 07/4/2020 20:52

EI,as you may remember bought these a bit higher up wasn't brave enough to add lower down.India mkt cap to gdp is at 54 lower than 2008 (55) slightly above 52 in 2005 & way below high 103 in 2008.Warren Buffet described this ratio to mkt cap as the best single measure of where valuation stand at any given moment in one of he's articles in fortune 2001,the average bear market last between 10 27 months,the ratio acts as one of the indicators to channelize investors to remain invested at current levels.

[essentialinvestor] 07/4/2020 13:06

Still available on a large NAV discount, nice diverse holdings.

[essentialinvestor] 26/3/2020 12:12

Many of their holdings up heavily again in today's session.

[essentialinvestor] 26/3/2020 12:11

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC announces the unaudited net asset values (NAVs) of the following investment companies as at close of business on 25 March 2020:


Aberdeen New India Investment Trust Undiluted Excluding Income 407.31p Ordinary
Aberdeen New India Investment Trust Undiluted Including Income 409.45p Ordinary

[essentialinvestor] 25/3/2020 14:54

Had a few this AM, NAV discount over 20% ?.

Decent long term record as well.