Personal Assets Trust keeps portfolio defensive amid market highs

Personal Assets Trust PLC on Wednesday reported a total return in its recent financial year that beat UK inflation but was below the year before.

Personal Assets is an investment trust managed by Troy Asset Management Ltd that focuses on capital preservation and absolute return from a multi-asset portfolio with concentrated long-only equity holdings. It is a FTSE 250 index constituent.

Net asset value total return in the financial year that ended April 30 was 6.3%, with share price total return just behind this at 6.2%. This compares to 7.5% and 7.4%, respectively, in financial 2025. It was well short of the FTSE all-share index total return of 25% in the recent year, but well above UK consumer price index inflation of 2.8%.

Personal Assets emphasised that its policy is to protect and increase the value of shareholders’ fund over the long term, ‘in that order’. It maintained a high level of liquidity at 54.8% as of April 30, including bonds, cash and non-equity risk assets, including gold. In total, 36% of the portfolio was in equities, 30% in index-linked bonds, 9% in gold, and the rest in liquidity, including the Japanese yen.

‘This is defensive positioning at a time when markets are making new all-time highs,’ commented managers Sebastian Lyon and Charlotte Yonge. ‘As opportunities emerge, we will continue to add selectively to risk when we are paid to take it.’

NAV per share was 540.84 pence on April 30, up 5.0% from 515.22p a year before. The trust also paid an unchanged dividend of 5.6p per share, composed of four 1.4p interim payouts.

For the new financial year running to April 2027, Personal Assets on Wednesday declared an unchanged 1.4p first interim dividend.

Chair Iain Ferguson said the annual returns were delivered amid a world that remains ‘unpredictable, uncertain and volatile’. Ferguson also warned ‘the economic shock waves from the Iran conflict are very real and will persist well beyond resolution of the conflict and the reopening of The Straits of Hormuz’.

Personal Asset Trust shares were down 0.2% to 535.70 pence on Wednesday morning in London. It has a market capitalisation of £1.66 billion.

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