Efforts by Global Opportunities Trust (GOT) to raise its profile paid off last year as the defensively managed, flexible investment fund delivered a 21.9% total return to shareholders.

Much of this came from the shares narrowing their gap – or discount – to the portfolio’s net asset value from 23.5% to 16.1% as increased marketing activity highlighted the fund’s strong underlying performance. 

A total return of 10.3% from its investments in funds and shares was impressive given the defensive stance of the portfolio that had over 44% in cash and money market funds at the end of December. The average annual growth in net asset value (NAV) was 5.2% in the past three years.

The £103m investment trust does not have a formal benchmark given that its aim is to produce a real long-term total return after inflation from investing globally in undervalued asset classes. 

However, for comparison, chair Cahal Dowds said GOT’s total shareholder return in 2025 outpaced the 14.6% from the FTSE All-World index and the 0.4% dip in the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond index.

Fund manager Dr Sandy Nairn, who stepped down from the board in January when GOT ceased being a self-managed investment company, said equities (currently 56.4% of the portfolio) had produced strong returns. 

The top five performers were Danieli, the Italian “green steel” and factory manufacturer; Intel, the US chip maker; Alibaba, the Chinese Amazon; telecom provider Orange; and Lloyds bank, which rose by an average of nearly 80%.

These more than offset the average decline of just under 20% in the handful of worst performers: Azelis, the Belgian food ingredients and speciality chemicals company; holiday airline Jet2, Bakkafrost, the Faroe Islands’ salmon farmer; and Premier Inn owner Whitbread.

Nairn, who is supported by Alan Bartlett and James Sym at Goodhart Partners, said most of the worst performers were European value stocks geared to the economy. These were held as a hedge to the defensive nature of the overall portfolio. 

The team added positions in Cicor Technologies, a European electronic solutions company; Carlsberg after the brewer’s shares drooped; and Laboratorios Farmacuetico ROVI, a specialist European drugs company.

Nairn said the positioning had become more defensive after the strong gains earlier in the year with the proportion of assets in cash at 43.6% at the end of January, up from 33.6% 12 months earlier. That’s a cash pile of £51.9m.

Dowds said the macro-economic environment remained “fragile” given the build up of debt since the 2008 global financial crisis. While artificial intelligence (AI) was a transformative technology that could revive growth, it had led to over exuberance in parts of the market. At 31 January it was 25.1% invested in Europe, up from 17% a year ago, while the allocation to the Americas had remained at 13.2%.

He said the US’s aggressive foreign policy under President Trump had added to global uncertainty with the latest war with Iran posing the highest risks. “The most likely outcome is a declaration of victory by the US but a continued theocratic and increasingly hostile state left behind. This would create meaningful risk of internecine conflict which could easily spread across the region. 

“That markets with elevated valuations have remained relatively unconcerned is remarkable,” he added.

Nairn said, “we remain of the view that the real opportunities are set to appear and we retain the dry powder accordingly”.

Since the US and Israel launched their military offensive against Iran at the end of February, the FTSE All-Share has fallen nearly 10% from a peak of 5,851 to 5,282.

The company has declared its one final dividend will be 10.3p per share, up 3% following a doubling in the pay-out in 2024. 

Our view

James Carthew, head of investment company research at QuotedData, said: “Global Opportunities’ double-digit net asset value (NAV) return is a good result for a trust that is so defensively positioned. I’m pleased to see the discount coming in but there is more to go for on that front.”

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