Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust

This is a high conviction, unconstrained portfolio of 25-40 companies across the globe, with a focus on quality growth businesses the team believe are leaders and innovators across long-term investment themes, such as the future of technology, resource scarcity and demographic changes.

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Our Opinion
Fund Manager
Investment Board
Key Facts
Fund Performance
Risk
Investment process
ESG
Gearing
Discount/Premium

Our Opinion

Zehrid has shown himself to be an excellent manager of high conviction strategies. This trust has the ability to tap into a series of long-term themes – such as the rise of electric vehicles, growth of the emerging market middle class and the onset of artificial intelligence - which have the potential to deliver strong outperformance for investors. The highly-driven research approach has proven to be extremely successful over the longer term across a range of portfolios and we see no reason why this cannot continue on this trust.

Fund Manager

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Fund Manager

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Zehrid Osmani, Lead Manager Zehrid is the Head of the Global Long-Term Unconstrained team and manages the Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust. He joined Martin Currie in May 2018, coming from BlackRock, where he held several senior roles starting in January 2008. At BlackRock, Zehrid was a senior portfolio manager responsible for managing various pan-European equity funds with a focus on unconstrained, high-conviction, long-term portfolios. He also served as Head of European Equities Research. Before BlackRock, Zehrid managed equity portfolios at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) and worked as a specialist sector analyst at Commerzbank Securities, UBS Warburg, and Credit Lyonnais. He began his investment career as a trainee fund manager at Scottish Investment Trust. Zehrid holds a BA in Economics and Finance from the University of Paris-La Sorbonne and a Master’s in International Finance from the University of Glasgow.

Zehrid Osmani, Lead Manager Zehrid is the Head of the Global Long-Term Unconstrained team and manages the Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust. He joined Martin Currie in May 2018, coming from BlackRock, where he held several senior roles starting in January 2008. At BlackRock, Zehrid was a senior portfolio manager responsible for managing various pan-European equity funds with a focus on unconstrained, high-conviction, long-term portfolios. He also served as Head of European Equities Research. Before BlackRock, Zehrid managed equity portfolios at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) and worked as a specialist sector analyst at Commerzbank Securities, UBS Warburg, and Credit Lyonnais. He began his investment career as a trainee fund manager at Scottish Investment Trust. Zehrid holds a BA in Economics and Finance from the University of Paris-La Sorbonne and a Master’s in International Finance from the University of Glasgow.

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Investment Board

The four strong investment board is chaired by Christopher Metcalfe. Chris has significant experience in both the investment trust and wider fund management industry. He is currently a senior non-executive director of JPMorgan US Smaller Companies Investment Trust plc and Aberdeen Smaller Companies Income Trust plc and has previously held roles at Newton, Schroder Investment Management and Henderson.

He is joined on the board by Gary Le Sueur, Marian Glen and Lindsay Dodsworth.

Key Facts

Asset type Equity

Annual Income (Historic) -

Sector Global

Gearing-

Fund Size-

Fund Manager Start Date 03 July 2018

Ongoing Charges Figure (OCF) -

Share price discount or premium -

Fund Performance

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Risk

A systematic risk assessment is undertaken throughout the investment process covering four key areas (industry, company, governance and sustainability, and portfolio risk). Each company is evaluated across these subsets on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 = highest risk) with a wide range of measures covered within each subset. Risk analysis of accounting, corporate ethos, ESG and valuation also take place.

The trust is high conviction in nature and will invest in companies worth $3bn or more, this can enhance stock-specific risks.

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Risk: 7

Fund Performance

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Risk

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A systematic risk assessment is undertaken throughout the investment process covering four key areas (industry, company, governance and sustainability, and portfolio risk). Each company is evaluated across these subsets on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 = highest risk) with a wide range of measures covered within each subset. Risk analysis of accounting, corporate ethos, ESG and valuation also take place.

The trust is high conviction in nature and will invest in companies worth $3bn or more, this can enhance stock-specific risks.

Company Description

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Investment process

Zehrid is head of Martin Currie’s nine-stong global equity team (which covers sectors such as technology, media and telecoms, consumer, healthcare, industrials, materials, autos, energy, utilities and financials). The team is supported by a wider group of more than 30 investment professionals who meet hundreds of companies every year. The team run three individual high conviction regional strategies (International, Europe and the US) – any holding in the trust will also be held in one of these strategies.

The investment process falls into three specific stages. The first is idea generation, which sees the total investable universe screened down from circa 2,800 companies to 500. Exclusions include targeting companies with a market cap of at least $3bn and low gearing. The 500 companies are then evaluated to create a list of around 90 names to target further.

The second stage is based on fundamental analysis which covers eight key criteria: industry analysis, a company’s growth drivers, returns, financial strength, accounting, corporate ethos, ESG position and valuation. Each is evaluated 1 to 5 (5 is the highest risk) across numerous subsets. The final stage is portfolio construction, which sees Zehrid and his team make sure each individual holding brings a unique contribution to the trust. As part of the process, the portfolio is segmented by its geographic revenue and profit, as opposed to where a company may be listed.

The final portfolio tends to hold 25-40 stocks. The highly active nature of this portfolio - combined with its focus on mega-trends themes like the future of technology, resource scarcity and demographic changes - means it will look significantly different from any global benchmark, with meaningful overweights to some sectors and no positions in others.

Risk

A systematic risk assessment is undertaken throughout the investment process covering four key areas (industry, company, governance and sustainability, and portfolio risk). Each company is evaluated across these subsets on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 = highest risk) with a wide range of measures covered within each subset. Risk analysis of accounting, corporate ethos, ESG and valuation also take place.

The trust is high conviction in nature and will invest in companies worth $3bn or more, this can enhance stock-specific risks.

ESG

ESG - Integrated  

The firm has been a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment since July 2009. The team are heavily engaged with each of their companies – talking to them at least twice a quarter. Proprietary ESG analysis is integrated throughout the investment process and covers 52 risk assessment parameters – including 20 focused specifically on social exploitation. Governance covers questions around board assessment, management, remuneration and culture; while sustainability covers environment risks, social risks, understanding and integration and common factors. All are ranked on a scale of 1 (lowest risk) to 5 (highest risk). This is all built into the management engagement agenda and feeds into portfolio analytics.

Gearing

The trust did not use gearing until 2020, when it secured a £30m three-year unsecured sterling term loan facility with Royal Bank of Scotland International. This was repaid in November 2023 and a new £10m three-year revolving loan facility was fully drawn down for a minimum six months. 

Discount/Premium

The board has adopted a zero-discount policy since 2013 to ensure the trust’s shares trade close to NAV in normal conditions. Over the past five years the trust has traded between a 10.7% discount and a 7.4% premium (figures to 31 January 2024). It has typically traded at a slight discount over this time.

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