First State overhauls 95% of Pacific Assets Trust

First State has overhauled the £142m Pacific Assets Trust it recently took over from F&C, selling all but five of the existing stocks.

Fund manager David Gait says he turned over 95% of the fund's 50 holdings in the first two weeks after taking control in July. Gait is running Pacific Assets in a near identical way to his £139m Asia Pacific Sustainability unit trust, the only difference being the closed-ended vehicle cannot invest in Australia. "We have quite a different style of investing to F&C and one of the things we wanted to do as soon as possible is get the fund into a shape where we could sleep easily at night," he says. "The fund is now more aligned to the Asia Pacific team's investment style with little ...