I just think the trust should be wound up at NAV.
I have read the comments about being paid to wait with a dividend but other trusts in the same sector have made good returns,
It would also have been better to hold an all share tracker, a FTSE100 tracker , a eurostox 50 tracker, as they seem to argue they are diversified being in Europe.
It is an utterly hopeless trust delivering awful performance |
@marks
Hence my suggestion that they might have a management change.
SABA have ratttled plenty of Trust managers nerves already. |
CVCG
Up 31% in a year, a debt fund yielding 10% ish
ISF, the ftse100 tracker up about 10% and yielding 4%
DIG 1 year TR 0.9%
Finsbury growth up about 7& TR.
FGT has the same mandate as DIG. Bottom line is that abrdn aren't much good. |
@marks
Fair points but that is probably why it is on such a tempting discount.
With the consolidation currently taking place in the I.T. sector, this trust looks ripe for an activist, or a change of manager.
Meanwhile one has a 5% yield to keep the draughts out... |
It has underperformed its benchmark over 1, 3, 5, and 10 years.
It has a benchmark that has a lower return profile than the FT100 but it is ivested promarily in UK large cap and a bit of Europe
So, they have fiddled their benchmark and then underperformed it! |
Gents
You both make good points, my view is largely similar to Gold's in that I'm being paid to wait and by taking them in on a 12% dis does, to me, make sense.
I do agree with 123 re the ESG issue, it is notable that all abrdn IT's seem to be on larger discounts than their peers, including some which I consider to be well run, such as Asia Focus which today I added to on a 19% discount.
They do appear to be like looking at gift horses in the mouth, but they also seem to be genuinely going begging, looking for buyers |
 Hi 123ct and bmcollins,
Double digit discounts are the norm at the moment for many investment trusts eg. BNKR, EDIN, HINT, LWI, MRC, MUT and MYI to name a few. Many IT companies have active policies to try and manage discounts through buybacks, increasing public awareness, mergers and lowering costs - all with questionable success. Continuation votes are also on the increase.
I am very happy with my holding of DIG shares with it c.5% dividend. I would hate to see this trust wound up, although with a market cap of under £400 million, merger with another IT could be on the cards sooner or later.
As william Meadon, recently retired manager of the JP Morgan Claverhouse trust said, 'large UK companies trade at a discount to global shares and Claverhouse at a discount to its investments.' This applies to many investment trusts, so current buyers have the opportunity of buying UK shares through IT's at double discounts.
When market sentiment improves, UK shares should rise and IT discounts narrow. At DIG we are being well paid to wait.
Goldpig |
to bmcollins
Abrdn seem obsessed with ESG more than the performance.
I am going to be careful with what I say here but I remember a couple of years ago watching an online presentation and they were asked to explain their holding in Unilever.
It was about 7 to 8% of the portfolio and I was expecting a solid well rounded argument, instead it was a spluttering of words and no cohesion.
That was when I decided this was a dog, DIG has given up some trading opportunities but if you fail the elevator pitch surely you cannot be expected to be running money. |
@123
It has indeed been a dog but it is on 12% discount with a 5% +/- yield so I have been buying them the past few months in my sipp as I do believe that "every dog has its day", I think with their portfolio the divi looks safe, they buy back shares every day but it doesn't seem to make much difference...
Interestingly also in the abrdn stable is equity income fund which is much smaller, no ESG nonsense and in the same table as DIG took the wooden spoon, AEI were silver medal holders coming in 2nd.
I did wonder if they might merge these 2 and perhaps just use the single manager who runs AEI and put the pair of ESG lovers out to pasture ? |
I have a small holding left in this trust, amazingly this has made me good money from trading it over the years but it is a complete dog finishing nearly last again in its sector.This needs to be wound up at NAV as it cannot even beat the benchmark. |
Who killed the ESG party? | FT Film
ESG investing was until recently a buzzword in global finance, the party was in full swing, the marketing material was everywhere and the money was rolling in. But asset managers are no longer boasting about their environmental, social and governance credentials after poor performance, greenwashing scandals and a political backlash in the US. So who killed the ESG party? This film looks at the suspects |
Agree, had this for years, really poor, much better off in a tracker, will look to dump this maybe, and buy more 3i. |
I bought some on Monday, I like the portfolio, their nav has performed rather better than theit stock price which gives us yesterday a discount of 10 or 11% which on a quality portfolio and a yield of close to 5% seems a sensible time to pick them up. |
Someone is dumping stock into any sign of a price uplift.
Add to that the PIs trying to dump ESG and it doesn't make a happy story. Stock selection eg Diageo and NG hasn't helped either
I want to bail out but am underwater even though the FTSE is 500 points higher than when the share price was north of 290
1 year share price performance -1.4%
I year ISF Ftse 100 tracker +15.4% |
Investors pull cash from ESG funds as performance lags
Sustainably focused equity funds suffer net $40bn of outflows in 2024, the first sustained exodus
Yes, I must admit that, in retrospect, I may have made a mistake investing here. |
A significant discount to NAV is tempting me in.
Most long term posters on here could beat Ben and Rebeca's share picking but the discounts's too tasty to miss in this UK focused trust. |
Happy to see the investment capital not being spent on buy backs ,hopefully into DIGs very decent portfolio instead well done chaps at ABRDN let common sense prevail. |
Buyback?
PURCHASE OF OWN ORDINARY SHARES
On 19 July 2023, the Company purchased in the market 1,000 ordinary shares at a price of 282.0 pence per share. These shares will be held in treasury.
It is a concentrated portfolio. It will be more volatile than the closet trackers |
I am having a look at this trust again, the trust share price has fallen nearly 8% in a month and the discount appears to have doubled from 5 to 10%.
I cannot work out any reason for this, I know it has 10% in Astrazeneca and that share fell 6% in a day on news and a couple of the other biggest concentrated holdings Diageo and Unilever are bumping along near 52 week lows but if there are any views on why the share price has dropped so much in the past month I would be keen to hear as the benchmark FTSE all share has barely moved.
I also agree the buyback does seem a waste of money and there are other IT using buyback yet their share prices are still heavily sold off due to the underlying assets falling in value. |
Not the best use of the companies investment capital those whom would benefit to the full in the closing of the discount will be sellers.
The present 10% discount is a mere enticement to buyers nothing else it certainly persuaded me to buy yesterday .
The present discount is not huge only the ebb and flow of the market when sentiment changes around UK equities it will narrow buy more undervalued UK equities with the investment capital do not waste it on these buybacks which are without any merit I say . |
Agree with both of you...I have held for many years and last week pursuaded my daughter to buy some for same reasons... |
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