End of an era as Global Opportunities drops self-managed status

Global Opportunities (GOT) has appointed Juniper Partners as alternative investment fund manager (AIFM), marking the end of an era as a self-managed trust.

The board of the £117m trust − which aims to provide a ‘real long-term total return’ through investment in undervalued asset classes − confirmed its transition from a self-managed trust following a review.

It has appointed Juniper Partners, which in turn farmed out the management of GOT to its sub-advisor Goodhart Partners. They will work alongside manager Sandy Nairn, who still has day-to-day responsibility for running the trust as a member of the Goodhart team but has resigned as a director.

There are no changes to the investment objective or policy, but the board said the change in regulatory structures that happens when an external manager is brought in ‘will remove certain constraints’ associated with being self-managed, including the ability to use gearing.

‘The company will have greater flexibility in the use of derivative instruments within its portfolio for efficient portfolio management, including for the purposes of hedging and leverage and it is hoped that this will support the company’s long-term growth strategy,’ it said.

Goodhart is already well-known to the GOT board given it currently provides introductory services to private market investment opportunities and advisory services to Nairn to help manage the global listed equities portfolio.

Nairn said investors have been benefiting from Goodhart’s input since 2021 when shareholders approved the expansion of GOT’s investment policy.

‘In the current environment, the need to access a wider range of hedging tools for efficient portfolio management purposes has become increasingly important,’ he said.

‘The appointment of an external AIFM combined with the additional expertise at Goodhart is an important step in allowing the company to continue to execute against this strategy.’

GOT has enjoyed a strong run of performance over the past year, with shares climbing 25.8% against an average return of 13.3% from its average peer in the Flexible Investment AIC sector, while the net asset value (NAV) is up 9.9% versus an average of 9.1%.

It has, however, lagged over three years, with shares up 15.9% versus 19% for the sector, and the NAV rising 16% versus 23.2%.

Nairn said that the current environment is ‘ideal’ for GOT’s ‘agile investment approach’.

‘We also believe that the key to generating attractive investment returns over the coming decade will be the flexibility to navigate increasingly aggressive market and interest rate cycles, combined with the ability to focus on specific investment opportunities,’ he said.

Since the change in investment policy in 2021 that brought Goodhart on board, the trust has focused more on absolute performance with success.

‘The net asset value of GOT has generated returns similar to global equity markets but with substantially lower risk and essentially no correlation to broad global equity indices,’ said Nairn.