Based on IMA/Morningstar data and released by the AIC, the research – to the end of March – covers all major mainstream sectors. For example, an investment in the AIC UK Growth and Income sector would have grown 266% over the decade on a total return basis, compared to 150% from IMA UK Equity Income.
The equivalent Europe equity sectors registered 340% for listed trusts versus 179% for Oeics/unit trusts, while for Asia Pacific ex Japan the difference was 572% versus 322%.
Investment trusts have beaten open-ended funds in all sectors over one year, except in property where the latter grew by 10% versus a 10% loss in the listed trust aggregate. It’s a similar story over, five and 10 years, possibly because of the continuing ramifications of property trusts entering into the last credit crisis with high gearing levels.
Comparing sector averages will always only be a rough science – the main AIC Japan and North America equity sectors (not including smaller companies) are tiny, with just three trusts in the former and four in the later. These are also all actively-managed while the equivalent IMA sectors include many passive funds which would have followed their indices with no chance of outperformance.
“The reality is we have included what we have got because advisers specifically wanted to see sector-by-sector so we included these smaller sectors,” said Annabel Brodie-Smith, communications director at the AIC.
“The data demonstrates that we have a very strong performance story to tell, particularly over the long term. I certainly hope this will catch the attention of people to start looking at investment companies and to dig deeper into the sector.”
The investment trust data in the study was unweighted share price total return performance figures on a mid-price to mid-price basis. The Oeic/unit trust data was unweighted total return performance figures on a bid-to-bid price basis.
