Henderson Value Trust considers name change

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Henderson Value Trust considers name change

The board of the Henderson Value Trust is considering changing its name to Henderson Alternative Strategies as the overhaul of the vehicle it inherited from rival SVM continues.

The board said the new name would better reflect the process being followed by Ian Barrass and James de Bunsen, who now run the trust after Henderon gained control of the mandate from SVM in April 2013.

A review of the benchmark has also been carried out and while the existing FTSE World index will continue as the trust’s formal benchmark, the managers will also reference an informal composite index of 75 per cent FTSE Developed and 25 per cent FTSE Emerging Markets.

The board said it had been conscious the FTSE World index is dominated by developed equity markets, while the portfolio has significant exposure to emerging markets.

In terms of performance, the management duo is still tackling the historic poor performance.

From April 2013 to April this year, the fund lost 3.48 per cent, while the benchmark returned 27.8 per cent and the Investment Company Global sector returned 24.4 per cent.

Investment trust broker, Numis, has also complained the portfolio transition “has taken far longer than expected”. A total of 15 per cent of the portfolio is still in somewhat illiquid legacy positions.

The broker said: “We believe that there is a role for a multi-manager investment trust focused on specialist/alternative asset classes, but that improved NAV performance is needed before there is likely to be any significant narrowing of the discount from the current 18.2 per cent.

“In addition, with a market cap of just £100m, the fund remains on the edge of viability, in our view.”