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Monks Investment Trust PLC on Wednesday reported improved returns in financial 2026, but flagged ‘clouds on the horizon’, reflecting the fallout of the US-Israeli war with Iran. The London-based investor in ‘high-quality, immature companies’ is managed by Baillie Gifford & Co. Its net asset value per share, with borrowings at fair value as of April 30, stood at 1,635.1 pence, up from 1,265.2p a year earlier. NAV total return at fair value was 29.3% for the year ended in April, just behind the firm’s comparator, the FTSE World Index, which returned 31.0% in sterling terms for the same period. Still, the Monks Investment result marked a significant improvement from the 0.1% return it had posted in 2025. The firm has recommended a single dividend of 0.9p per share, increased from 0.5p on-year. According to Monks Investment: ‘The world has contained the impact of the change in tariffs and the terms-of-trade shock with relatively little immediate disruption, and the sudden rise in the oil price has been absorbed remarkably well so far. But the consequences of all of this will take months, or indeed years, to play out.’ ‘Disruption of fertiliser supply from the Arabian Gulf will affect crop yields, farmers and ultimately consumers globally into 2027. Repairs to the liquefied natural gas trains damaged in the recent conflict could, on some estimates, take five years. Indeed, this macro backdrop reinforces the case for active stock selection over passive exposure to mega-cap concentration and, equally, the case for global diversification over a single sector or region,’ the firm said. In the year ended in April, top contributors included Schiehallion Fund Ltd, a Baillie Gifford-managed investor in ‘later stage private businesses’. Other strong performers were Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd and fellow chipmaker Samsung Electronics Co. The main detractors to Monks Investment’s performance in financial 2026 were Elevance Health Inc, Tencent Holdings Ltd, Broadcom Inc and CoStar Group Inc. Back in December, it had acknowledged underexposure to Alphabet Inc, Broadcom and Tesla Inc, but said: ‘These are deliberate choices and reflect the quality of return opportunity we can see elsewhere in the portfolio.’ Though it still sees ‘clouds on the horizon’, Monks Investment on Wednesday said it hopes that a broader dispersion of global equity returns, across stocks other than the Magnificent Seven, will benefit the company. Monks Investment shares rose 0.4% to 1,632.40 pence early on Wednesday afternoon in London. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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