Scottish Mortgage Inv Tst PLC
27 April 2006
SCOTTISH MORTGAGE INVESTMENT TRUST PLC.
STATEMENT ON DISCOUNT CONTROL POLICY.
The Board of Scottish Mortgage is aware that a number of large investment trusts
have announced discount control policies. This statement seeks to clarify
Scottish Mortgage's position.
• The Board considers that the prime driver of discounts over the longer term
is performance. Scottish Mortgage has made significant changes to its
investment approach over the past three years by reducing the number of
holdings; by adopting a longer view and by taking a global rather than a
regional approach to selecting investments. Scottish Mortgage is an
actively managed fund and is not driven by index tracking considerations.
• The resulting performance has been very strong relative to the Benchmark(1),
other AITC(2) global growth investment trusts and IMA(3) open-ended global
growth funds.
Total Return(4) to 31 March 2006
1 year 3 years 5 years
Scottish Mortgage share price 60% 138% 54%
Scottish Mortgage benchmark 30% 85% 25%
AITC Global Growth Av. (5) 41% 110% 38%
IMA Global Growth Av. 32% 85% 23%
Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.
Source AITC & IMA
• The Board recognises that it is in the long term interests of
shareholders to reduce discount volatility.
• Since 1999 the Board has used its powers to buy back and cancel
74.9m shares (20.8% of original share capital) which has enhanced NAV by
3.82%.
• The Board does not intend to issue a precise discount target. As it
considers that the announcement of specific targets is likely to hinder
rather than help the successful execution of a buyback policy.
• Consideration of future buybacks will be made with reference to the
Company's discount in absolute terms and relative to those of its peer
group. The Board firmly believes that the superior performance and
distinctive approach justifies a narrower discount than at present.
• The Board intends seeking powers from shareholders at the Annual
General Meeting on 28 June 2006 to hold shares which may have been bought
back in treasury for future issue at a premium.
27 April 2006.
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(1) 50% FTSE ALL-Share Index and 50% FTSE World Ex. UK (in sterling terms)
(2) Association of Investment Trust Companies
(3) Investment Management Association
(4) Total return includes both capital growth and income reinvested
(5) Share price return - Size Weighted Average
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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