Nick Train has finally run out of patience with Pearson and sold the last of his remaining shares in the troubled academic publisher.
Train (pictured), best known for his buy and hold approach, halved his 9.9% stake in Pearson in January, a decision he admitted was driven by heavy redemptions from his Lindsell Train UK Equity fund.
The academic publisher was nowhere to be found in a portfolio breakdown for the Finsbury Growth & Income trust at its AGM the following month.
But, according to an update for the Lindsell Train Global Equity strategy, Pearson has now been divested from all of Lindsell Train’s funds.
Referencing the failed £7bn bid from private equity giant Apollo, portfolio manager Madeline Wright said: “We no longer own Pearson shares across any of our strategies, so have little to add at this point other than to wish the company well.”
“We still admire Pearson as a long-term owner of important and differentiated IP but had not added to our position since late 2020 as we monitored its evolving business strategy. This effectively placed the holding ‘on watch’ and some was then sold to meet fund redemptions,” she added.
Mystery holding added to Lindsell Train Global Equity
By offloading the stake in Pearson, Wright said she and Lindsell Train Global Equity managers Train, Michael Lindsell and James Bullock had freed up funds to purchase a new holding for the fund – its first new holding in three years.
Though she would not reveal the mystery holding, she hinted that it is “consistent with our existing portfolio”, and “combines heritage with ownership of deeply embedded intellectual property, allowing it to earn high rates of return protected by a very deep moat”.
She added: “We look forward to updating you next month.”
Like Lindsell Train’s other strategies, Lindsell Train Global Equity has fallen out of favour amid the rotation away from growth stocks. In 2021, investors pulled £435m from the fund, though this was not as severe as UK Equity’s outflows of £1.1bn.
This is despite the fact its performance has been even shakier than the UK-focused strategy. It is now in the bottom quartile over one and three years, returning -3% and 14.9% compared to the IA Global average of 4.2% and 37.9%.
See also: Lindsell Train trust retools method for valuing Nick Train’s fund business
