Already a subscriber?Almost two years ago, as Australia emerged from its pandemic hangover, Chanticleer wrote about an unusual problem at Australia’s oldest and largest listed investment company: shares in Australian Foundation Investment Company were trading at a big premium to the value of its portfolio of blue chips.
The rally in global equity markets over the last seven months is also likely to have played a role, Freeman says, with money shifting towards the hot stocks that have been driving the market. “We do tend to lag a bit in those environments,” he says. Freeman says that AFIC, which has a management expense ratio of just 0.14 per cent of assets and charges no other fees, stacks up relatively well against ETFs, where persistent price pressure has pushed fees as low as 0.03 per cent. He also says the AFIC model has proven its advantages through different cycles, and particularly in more difficult environments, such as the pandemic period, where it was able to sustain its dividend.“We invest when we want to invest.
Brett McNeill oversees Djerriwarrh, which has a slightly different focus to its peers: it aims to deliver a higher fully franked yield than the ASX 200 through both capital growth and the sale of options; it trades on a yield of 6.5 per cent, compared with 5 per cent for the broader market. While winners for the LIC have included energy software provider Gentrack and electrical distributor IDP Group, Kennedy is looking towards two longer-term bets.