Jacob Rothschild Annual Letter

scott

Taken from annual report, RIT Capital Partners (portion of the longer letter.)

The world economy grew at a disappointing and
uneven rate in 2014 after six years of monetary
stimulus and extraordinarily low interest rates. Stock
market valuations however, are near an all-time high
with equities benefiting from quantitative easing. Not
surprisingly, the value of paper money has been
debased as countries have sought to compete and
generate growth by lowering the value of their
currencies – the Euro and the Yen depreciated by over
12% against the US Dollar during the course of the
year and Sterling by 5.9%. The unintended
consequences of monetary experiments on such a
scale are impossible to predict.

In addition to this difficult economic background, we
are confronted by a geopolitical situation perhaps as
dangerous as any we have faced since World War II:
chaos and extremism in the Middle East, Russian
aggression and expansion, and a weakened Europe
threatened by horrendous unemployment, in no small
measure caused by a failure to tackle structural reforms in many of the countries which form part of
the European Union.

However, in a world of zero or even negative bond
yields, equities may well remain the destination of
choice for investors. Furthermore, the majority of
companies are reporting profits exceeding forecasts
together with steady earnings growth. In Europe, the
combination of a more competitive Euro, an
aggressive programme of quantitative easing and the
yields available on equities, may well lead to even
higher valuations.

http://www.ritcap.com/

Ted

@Scott; Do they have a mutual fund that an American can buy ?
Regards,
Ted

scott

RIT Capital is a London-traded investment trust (like a CEF in the US). The London shares are RCP.L. There is a pink sheet version (foreign ordinary shares) with the symbol RITPF.PK, but they are very illiquid.

Unfortunately, no funds aside from RIT, which used to be part of the Rothschild empire, but was taken public in the late 1980's.

Performance: "Since inception, RIT has now participated in 75% of market upside but only 38% of market declines.
Over the same period, NAV per share compounded at 11.6% per annum"

Mitchelg

Any figure out the expense ratio? Also, does it sell
at a discount or premium like US closed end funds.

Ted

@Scott: Thanks for the info, but no thanks RIT.
Regards,
Ted

JohnChisum

@scott, Thanks for the information.

TSP_Transfer

Thanks again @Scott.I have a watch list on Google Finance labeled Scott's Ideas.
RIT quote:
http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/ir/rit-capital-partners

heezsafe

@Ted Oh, come on, spread your wings, call it your "Euro Alt fund," do it for the sake of diversification. You too can become a Rothschild! How cool is that?