Charitable trust’s stock rising

Shetland Charitable Trust’s funds experienced an overall increase of £32 million in the last financial year, trustees heard on Thursday.

The trust’s investment funds drew a return of £40 million in the year up to April. During that time the trust distributed £8.4 million into the community.

Thanks to this strong performance on the financial markets the trust currently sits on funds of around £232 million, invested through various fund managers.

However, trustees were warned by Candida de Silva, of investment managers BlackRock, that “returns of nearly 27 per cent in 12 months is not the norm.”

BlackRock was one of four investment companies to give the trustees an update on their investment performance for the previous financial year.

Property fund managers Schroders earned the trust a 4.1 per cent return. They told trustees that they had increased their investments by an average of £2.1 million per annum since 2009.

Insight, who manage the trust’s diversified growth fund, recorded returns of three per cent in the final six months of the financial year.
Bailie Gifford, who were awarded an £80 million global equity mandate as part of the trust’s investment strategy review, recorded fund returns of 14.4 per cent in the last quarter of the financial year.

The new approach, devised with the support of financial consultancy Mercer, is part of an overall financial strategy which will help the Trust achieve its goal of financial sustainability by 2020.

Speaking after the meeting SCT chairman Bobby Hunter said: “Despite all the political upheavals in the world, the markets have performed well over the past year and the trust’s investments have made very healthy returns.

“But as we know from experience, the markets can fall and that can mean the numbers don’t look so good.”