Personal Assets Trust plc
LEI: 213800Z7ABM7RLQ41516
Results for the year ended 30 April 2025
The Directors of Personal Assets Trust plc (the ‘Company’) are pleased to announce the Company’s results for the year ended 30 April 2025.
The key points are as follows:
- The Company’s investment policy is to protect and increase (in that order) the value of shareholders’ funds per share over the long term.
- Over the year to 30 April 2025 the net asset value (‘NAV’) total return was 7.5%. This compares to a total return of 7.5% in the FTSE All-Share Index. The share price rose by 28.00p during the year and at 30 April 2025 was 511.00p. An analysis of performance is provided in the Chairman’s Statement and Investment Manager’s Report below.
- Percentage changes to 30 April 2025:
| Percentage Changes | |||||
| 1 Year | 3 years | 5 Years | 10 Years | Since 1990(1) | |
| Share Price | 5.8 | 1.6 | 18.0 | 45.7 | 1,193.7 |
| NAV per Share (2) | 5.8 | 4.7 | 20.8 | 47.3 | 809.1 |
| FTSE All-Share Index | 3.7 | 9.8 | 40.8 | 22.2 | 340.4 |
| Share Price Relative to FTSE All-Share | 2.0 | (7.5) | (16.2) | 19.3 | 193.8 |
| Share Price Total Return(2) | 7.4 | 6.3 | 26.5 | 67.8 | 2,432.7 |
| NAV per Share Total Return(2) | 7.5 | 9.6 | 29.7 | 69.9 | 1,659.9 |
| Retail Price Index (RPI) | 4.5 | 20.2 | 37.5 | 55.9 | 221.5 |
| Consumer Price Index (CPI) | 3.5 | 15.1 | 27.4 | 38.3 | 150.3 |
| FTSE All-Share Total Return | 7.5 | 22.6 | 67.9 | 75.9 | 1,441.3 |
| Share Price Total Return relative to FTSE All-Share Total Return | (0.1) | (13.3) | (24.7) | (4.6) | 64.3 |
| Share Price Total Return relative to RPI | 2.8 | (11.6) | (8.0) | 7.6 | 687.8 |
| Share Price Total Return relative to CPI | 3.8 | (7.7) | (0.7) | 21.4 | 912.0 |
(2) Alternative Performance Measure. Please see pages 64 and 65 of the Annual Report for a glossary of terms and definitions.
- During the year the Company’s shares continued to trade close to NAV. The Company bought back 26,087,000 shares and issued 600,000 shares in the year under review.
- During the year, the Company continued to maintain a high level of liquidity. At 30 April 2025, liquidity was 63.3%. This included 21.8% in UK Gilts, UK index-linked bonds, UK cash, overseas cash, and net current assets and 41.5% in various classes of non-equity risk assets: 26.7% in US TIPS, 4.0% in US Treasuries and 10.8% in Gold Bullion. This compared to holdings as at 30 April 2024 of 11.8% in UK Gilts, UK cash, overseas cash, and net current liabilities and 60.6% in various classes of non-equity risk assets: 36.5% in US TIPS, 11.6% in US Treasuries and 12.5% in Gold Bullion.
The Chairman, Iain Ferguson, said:
Our world has become ever more unpredictable and uncertain over the last year. We have seen a predicted change of government in the UK and the ‘world changing’ re-election of President Trump in the United States. Trump has dominated the geo-political and world-economic agenda since the start of the year, challenging and disrupting long-standing relationships across the globe, whilst conducting his own ‘brand’ of diplomacy and negotiation in a blaze of highly public engagements: ‘Not for him the Art of Quiet Diplomacy’. In recent weeks his imposition of tariffs, followed by myriad bilateral negotiations and ‘special-deals and arrangements’ has both spread alarm and confusion but has also shown the limits of his ability to influence international markets without severely damaging the US economy. Very sadly, the wars in Europe, the Middle East and Africa continue and are each proving to be hugely intractable despite intensifying international efforts to find workable solutions; we must hope that these efforts can finally prevail and bring lasting and just peace.
This is the volatile and challenging context in which we seek to deliver our core investment proposition, which is to protect and increase (in that order) the value of shareholders’ funds per share (also known as net asset value (‘NAV’) per share), over the long term. All the Personal Assets Trust plc (‘PAT’) Directors and our Investment Managers at Troy Asset Management Limited (‘Troy’), Sebastian Lyon and Charlotte Yonge, are shareholders in PAT. As such, we are all strongly aligned and are advocates for this investment proposition. As PAT Directors, we have a close, but also independent, relationship with the Troy team, bringing our collective experience to complement, inform, challenge and support.
We track the performance of the Company from 1990. Since then, the NAV total return has grown at an annual compound rate of 8.6% compared to 3.5% for the UK Retail Price Index and 8.4% for the FTSE All-Share Index (total return), our two main comparators. We also track the degree of risk experienced in achieving our financial performance. The results are tabulated in the Key Features section on page 2 of the Annual Report and the volatility experienced is indicated on the chart on page 11 of the Annual Report. This shows that over the last 25 years the Company has been less volatile than equities in general and also less volatile than the AIC Flexible Investment Sector. Whilst this combination of above comparator financial performance and below-sector volatility is the outcome of a focus on capital preservation, these metrics are by no means a target. The Investment Manager’s focus remains on the avoidance of permanent capital loss (our preferred definition of risk) and on growing the real value of the Company’s capital over the long run. In the report on pages 6 and 7 of the Annual Report, Sebastian and Charlotte provide further details of our investment performance and describe the particular challenges of the last year.
During the year we bought back 26,087,000 Ordinary shares into Treasury, and issued 600,000 Ordinary shares from Treasury, under the Company’s discount control policy, for a net outflow of £126 million. As at 30 April 2025 we had 392,805,200 Ordinary shares in issue, with 75,966,828 Ordinary shares in Treasury. It is the policy of the Company to ensure that, in normal market conditions, its Ordinary shares always trade at or close to NAV and this policy is enshrined in the Articles of Association. It is reassuring to report that since November 1999, when investment trusts were empowered to use capital to buy back shares and hence control the discount to NAV at which their shares trade, the PAT share price has closely tracked the NAV. This has held true both through periods of significant issuance and, as demonstrated in recent past, through a period of sustained buyback avoiding the major discounts to NAV which have impacted many trusts across the wider market.
The Company aims to pay as consistent and sustainable a dividend as is compatible with protecting and increasing the value of its shareholders’ funds and maintaining its investment flexibility. The Board remains committed to paying an annual dividend of 5.60p per share in line with this policy. High levels of inflation during the year, particularly in the United States, mean that the Company has again this year earned significantly more income on its holding of US TIPS than in previous years. Accordingly, in order to meet the investment trust distribution requirements, the Board has resolved to pay an additional special dividend for the year to 30 April 2025 of 1.60p per share. This dividend will be paid to shareholders in July 2025 alongside the first interim dividend of 1.40p per share for the year to 30 April 2026.
The Board membership has enjoyed a further year of stability and I am grateful for the continuing commitment and wise counsel of my colleagues. Jean Sharp will step down from the Board after nine years as a Director, latterly as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at the close of the upcoming AGM. Jean has been a very effective and diligent member of the Board and we are grateful for the significant contribution she has made to PAT; we wish her well for the future. Sharon Brown will be joining the Board as a Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, with effect from the conclusion of the AGM. Sharon brings extensive financial and commercial experience together with contemporary knowledge of investment trusts; we look forward to her contribution to our discussions. During 2025 Lintstock conducted an independent external review of the performance of the Board and its Committees. Whilst this did not highlight any material weaknesses or concerns, it did helpfully identify a few areas for further focus by the Board in the period ahead. Further detail can be found on page 29 of the Annual Report, and we will comment on progress made in our report next year.
As part of our oversight of our key service providers, we conduct a formal annual review process with Troy. The review process is led by Mandy Clements and includes open discussions with all the PAT Directors and several members of the senior team at Troy. We have all found this to be a positive and helpful exercise. In summary, our relationship with Troy continues to be excellent and we are increasingly benefitting from access to the shared resources and focused support from the wider Troy team. We now hold at least two Board meetings each year in the Troy offices in London which is helping us to get to know more members of the Troy team and to deepen our relationship on a broader base. As our shareholder funds continue to be above £1.5 billion, we continue to benefit from the revised fee structure agreed in 2021. Details of the fee structure are shown on page 15 of the Annual Report. We also pay particular attention to ensuring the competitiveness of our ongoing charges ratio, which was 0.67% for the year ended 30 April 2025, having reduced from 0.89% in 2013 and is a small increase from last year’s figure of 0.65%.
We adopt a similar annual review process with Juniper Partners. As with Troy, this process is led by Mandy Clements. Our relationship with Juniper Partners, which provides our administrative, company secretarial, AIFM and discount control services, continues to be excellent with a very open and supportive culture. Juniper Partners provides a first-class service to the Company and works in close association with Troy to provide a seamless service to the PAT Board and shareholders.
We recognise the continuing evolution of the Company’s shareholder base and the increasing number of investors holding shares through retail platforms who may not have direct access to communications with the Company. This is a challenge which is often discussed by the Board as we seek to improve communication and interaction with investors. We hope that our website (www.patplc.co.uk), our Quarterlies, our Annual and Interim Reports and our monthly Factsheet are providing investors with easy and effective access to information about PAT and we will continue to seek innovative ways of improving our dialogue with shareholders and with potential shareholders.
We are looking forward to holding the AGM at 12 noon on Friday 18 July 2025 at The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The Investment Manager’s presentation will also be made available on our website following the AGM for those who cannot attend in person. I would encourage all shareholders to submit any questions for the AGM to our Company Secretary by email in advance of the meeting at cosec@junipartners.com by Tuesday, 15 July 2025. In the meantime, I wish you all good health and thank you for entrusting your investment to PAT.