Nick Train defends Finsbury Growth & Income as it returns less than half its benchmark

Trust returned 10.6%

Following a period of significant underperformance, Nick Train, manager of the £2.1bn Finsbury Growth & Income trust, has explained his investment rationale for each of the 17 stocks that make up 98% of the portfolio in a lengthy statement in the annual report released today (15 December).

The company's net asset value per share total return was 10.6%, for the year to the end of September, while the share price total return was 6.3%. The annual report acknowledged this was "disappointing" compared to the benchmark, the FTSE All Share index, which returned 27.9% over the same period. Explaining the underperformance Train highlighted that the portfolio is "risky". "We have no quibble with any rejoinder that what we do is risky," he said. This risk is two-fold, according to the manager. The trust is at risk of underperforming its benchmark and "in the sense that holding su...