Investments in online grocer Ocado and Grubhub, a US food ordering business, helped drive the £527m Edinburgh Worldwide investment trust to the top of the performance charts in 2018.
The trust has returned 21 per cent this year to date, compared with a return of 6 per cent for the average trust in the AIC Global sector in the same time period.
The remit of the Edinburgh Worldwide trust's remit is to invest in earlier stage companies than its larger stablemate, the Scottish Mortgage trust, with the aim being for the companies held in Edinburgh Worldwide to potentially later be sold to the Scottish Mortgage trust.
Tom Slater, who jointly manages the Scottish Mortgage trust, has said Edinburgh Worldwide is the only other equity investment he owns in his personal portfolio, apart from the trust he manages himself.
In the six months to 30 April the trust issued £25.1m worth of new shares, expanding the size of the trust.
The shares were issued at a premium to net asset value.
The trust has about 2.5 per cent of its capital invested in unquoted companies.
Henry Strutt, chairman of the trust, said: “We remain broadly happy with the operational performance of the vast majority of the company's holdings. Notable positive contributions were made from Ocado, GrubHub and recently listed Nucana.
"Ocado, the online grocery company, has made significant progress at licensing its leading automated warehouse and logistics platform to several large incumbents around the world. Our belief has been that Ocado's proposition represents the most compelling solution for selling online grocery at scale and that its hard earned experience in the UK stood it in good stead to export this to supermarket chains throughout the world.
"Following the period end, Ocado has also announced a sizable partnership agreement with Kroger, the second largest grocer in the US, which could see up to 20 Ocado-powered warehouses built in the US over the coming years. This is a transformational event for Ocado and a clear endorsement of how forward-thinking supermarkets are approaching changing consumer habits.
"GrubHub, the US online food-ordering platform, announced a strategically interesting US partnership with YUM brands, the owner of Pizza Hut, TacoBell and KFC.
"This partnership sees GrubHub become YUM's exclusive national delivery partner, a development which we think is highly significant as it validates GrubHub's reach and technical expertise.
"Nucana, the Edinburgh-based cancer drug company, released some highly encouraging, albeit early, clinical data. In a study investigating its second-generation chemotherapy compound in a rare form of gall bladder cancer, half the patients had a clear and clinically meaningful beneficial effect from its drug.
"This early data provides encouraging evidence that the company's technology provides markedly superior forms of anti-cancer drugs versus the original chemotherapy agents from which they are derived.”
david.thorpe@ft.com
