Bruce Stout, manager of Murray International Trust, is to retire in June 2024, the investment trust has announced.
Stout has been the lead manager of the global equities trust for close to 20 years, having taken up the post in 2004. He originally joined the company in 1987.
His colleagues Martin Connaghan and Samantha Fitzpatrick will be co-managers of the trust from here and take over in joint charge when Stout retires next summer.
David Hardie, chair of Murray International Trust, said: “Bruce has now advised us of his intention to retire at the end of June 2024 and I am delighted to announce that Martin and Samantha will take on co-managerial responsibility for the company’s investments alongside Bruce with immediate effect, thereby ensuring the smoothest of handovers and no change in Abrdn’s approach to the investment management of the company going forward.
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“It is premature of me to thank Bruce for all his efforts on behalf of the company and I am sure that many of you will have the opportunity to do so personally in the run-up to his departure in just under a year’s time.”
Darius McDermott, managing director at FundCalibre, commented: “For the best part of two decades Bruce has delivered excellent returns for investors on the Murray International Trust. While his style has meant that returns have been very strong in some years and weaker in others, there is no doubting his process of focusing on defensive businesses which are able to retain both earnings and dividends, without paying over the odds, has been incredibly successful over the long term.
“His portfolio has been truly global in nature, with reasonably strong exposure to Asia and emerging markets. This initially led to significant outperformance but has become more of a headwind in recent years due to stronger performance in developed markets.
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“The trust has picked up again from the beginning of 2022 as rising rates and inflation changed the direction of markets,” McDermott continued. “Bruce has also shown himself to be very flexible in terms of his exposure to fixed income, particularly if he feels there is not enough value in the equity market.
“Ultimately, a return of almost 670 % over his tenure is something long-term investors should be very happy with. The trust has also delivered on its income mandate, with 18 years of consecutive dividend increases.”
According to data from FE Fundinfo, Murray International Trust has achieved top-quartile and second-quartile total returns over three and five years respectively, of 49.4% and 36.2%. This is compared to its average peer in the IT Global sector’s respective gains of 31.4% and 34.7% over the same time frames.
Iain Scouller, analyst at Stifel Funds, said that Stout’s retirement was “not unexpected” but that he will “certainly miss his insights on the world” – particularly his warnings on the pitfalls of excessive corporate or government-led leverage.
“He was one of the few investment managers that foresaw a lot of the problems ahead of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis,” Scouller said. “He also suspected that the pandemic business shutdowns three years ago, and central bank ‘money-printing’ would have inflationary consequences, which is exactly where we have ended up today.
“Fortunately, Bruce has two colleagues who have grown up in the same mould – Martin Connaghan and Samantha Fitzpatrick. They have worked with Bruce since 2001 and have the same investment philosophy – therefore, we expect the trust’s distinctive investment strategy should continue to be pursued in the future.”
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