Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 6630B

Personal Assets Trust PLC

19 August 2008

Personal Assets Trust plc

For the Three Month Period from 1 May 2008 to 31 July 2008

Investment Objective

Personal Assets is an investment trust run expressly for private investors. Its capital structure is the simplest possible for an investment trust, consisting only of ordinary shares. Its investment objective is to protect and increase (in that order) the value of shareholders' funds over the long term and to earn as high a total return as is compatible with a risk equivalent to that of the FTSE All-Share Index. Since Personal Assets invests for the long term, the Board assesses performance not annually at the end of each accounting year but over rolling three-year periods.

We aim to pay as high, secure and sustainable a dividend as is compatible with maintaining our investment flexibility. We intend the present dividend rate to grow in real terms and it is our policy never to cut the dividend rate, so shareholders know that each half-yearly payment will at least equal the previous one.

The Board's policy is to ensure that the shares of Personal Assets always trade at close to NAV.

Performance Summary

	As at 31 July 2008	As at 30 April 2008	Movement

Market capitalisation	£184.1m	£189.3m	(2.7%)
Shareholders' funds	£185.0m	£188.7m	(2.0%)
Effective liquidity	25.3%	100.2%	-
Share price	£250.00	£258.25	(3.2%)
Net asset value per share	£251.26	£257.37	(2.4%)
(Discount)/premium to NAV	(0.5%)	0.3%	-
FTSE All-Share index	2,749.21	3,099.94	(11.3%)

Period Review and Material Events

A review of the year ended 30 April 2008 and of material events that took place during that period will be found in Personal Assets Trust plc's Annual Report. This also contains a review of the principal risks and uncertainties for our financial year to 30 April 2009.

Since the publication of the Annual Report we have continued to be bearish of the UK and US equity markets, as is described in the Managing Director's Speech to the AGM on 17 July 2008 which was circulated to shareholders in August along with Quarterly Report No. 50. At 30 April 2008 we were 100% liquid. As the UK and US equity markets fell in June and July 2008 we decided to lock in some of our resulting outperformance by reducing our liquidity in stages. On 23 June we purchased 673 FTSE 100 September 2008 contracts, reducing the liquidity of the trust to 80%. On 26 June 2008 we purchased a further 990 contracts, reducing our liquidity to 50%, and an additional 918 contracts were purchased between 8 July and 15 July 2008, reducing our liquidity to 25%.

On 6 June 2008 we took up the rights in RBS Group, the shares of which we believed to be temporarily oversold. On 14 July 2008 we sold our HBOS rights because for much of the rights issue period they were out of the money and we believed the terms were unattractive.

During the three months ended 31 July 2008 the Company purchased 3,616 Ordinary Shares to be held in treasury for a total consideration of £0.9 million, representing 0.5% of the Ordinary Shares in issue at the beginning of the period. The Company also re-issued 7,021 Ordinary Shares from treasury for a total consideration of £1.8 million, representing 1.0% of the Ordinary Shares in issue at the beginning of the period.

Top Ten Holdings as at 31 July 2008

Company	Percentage of shareholders' funds	Percentage of equity exposure

Royal Dutch Shell 'B'	7.5	10.1
BP	6.8	9.0
GlaxoSmithKline	4.1	5.5
RBS Group	2.8	3.7
BT Group	2.4	3.3
Alliance Trust	2.2	2.9
HBOS	1.7	2.3
Barclays	1.5	1.9
Philip Morris International	1.0	1.4
Dover Corp	0.7	0.9
Other equities (10)	3.8	5.2
FTSE 100 Futures	40.2	53.8
Total		100.0

Geographical Analysis as at 31 July 2008

Country	Percentage of shareholders' funds

UK equity exposure (including futures)	72.3
US equities	2.4
Liquidity	25.3
Total	100.0

Sector Distribution as at 31 July 2008

Sector	Percentage of total assets	Percentage of FTSE All-Share

Oil & Gas	21.6	18.2
Basic Materials	4.9	12.3
Industrials	4.9	6.8
Consumer Goods	4.8	9.5
Health Care	7.3	7.3
Consumer Services	3.7	9.1
Telecom	4.9	6.1
Utilities	1.8	4.5
Financials	15.6	22.2
Investment Trusts	4.7	2.9
Technology	0.5	1.1
Liquidity	25.3	-

Total	100.0	100.0