Fund manager Nick Train spent £2.4m of his own cash in 2019 buying shares in the £1.8bn Finsbury Growth and Income investment trust he manages.
The information was contained in the annual accounts of Lindsell Train Limited, the fund management firm co-founded by Mr Train.
The investment proved lucrative for Mr Train, as the trust returned 16 per cent during the year to January 31, 2020, the period in which he bought the shares.
However the £2.4m was less than he spent on shares in the trust the previous year, when he bought £3.4m worth.
The accounts show Mr Train did not buy shares in 2019 in any of the other mandates he runs. He also works on the Lindsell Train UK and Global Equity funds, and the Lindsell Train Investment Trust.
Lindsell Train declined to comment for this article.
The investment level can be seen in the context of Mr Train receiving a dividend of £15.5m from Lindsell Train during the financial year.
The highest paid director of the firm, likely to have been either Mr Lindsell or Mr Train, received £10.5m in salary that year.
The annual report of the Finsbury Growth and Income Trust, which covered the year to September 30, 2019, a slightly different time period to that of Lindsell Train Limited, showed that at the end of September 2019, Mr Train owned a stake in the trust valued at £25.1m.
Alastair Smith, an investment manager working with Mr Train on the trust, had a personal stake of just over £700,000 in the trust at the end of September.
david.thorpe@ft.com
