INVESTMENT trust Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon has reaped the rewards of its stakes in online businesses targeting large and under-developed markets in Japan, including food delivery business Yume No Machi and fashion retailer Start Today.
The £256 million Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon flagged the contributions of such holdings to its overall performance as it announced net asset value per share had risen 34 per cent over the year to January 31. Its comparative MSCI Japan Small Cap index advanced 34.9 per cent in sterling terms.
The trust flagged its superior performance over its favoured three-year timeframe. Over the three years to January, Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon’s net asset value rose 87.6 per cent., while the comparative index advanced 69.4 per cent in sterling terms.
Trust chairman Neil Donaldson says in the annual report: “In our interim management report we commented on the EU referendum result in the UK, along with concerns over global growth (China in particular), rising scepticism over unconventional monetary policy by central banks and further speculation over a rise in US interest rates.
“To this we now need to add the election of President Trump in the US and be mindful that all of these developments are still in their infancy. As such, uncertainty remains and caution in investment decision-making is paramount.”
He added: “That said, our primary focus is on Japan and there have been significant developments in that market. Last year, I highlighted the pace of economic change and the fact that company boards were improving corporate governance. This development is continuing and is to be welcomed.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here