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Mel Jenner
13 September 2017 · 2 min read

Finsbury Growth & Income Trust announces new holding in Manchester United

First new purchase since 2015

Finsbury Growth & Income Trust (FGT) has announced that manager Nick Train has initiated a holding in Manchester United. He is well renowned for his low-turnover investment approach and this is the first new position in FGT’s portfolio since the purchase of Rémy Cointreau in 2015. Manchester United listed on the New York Stock Exchange in August 2012 at a price of $14 per share. Its share price subsequently rose above $19 and is currently trading at c $17. The football club has a market cap of $2.7bn and currently offers a dividend yield of 1.07%. Train believes that the value of Manchester United’s global franchise is not reflected in its current share price. He cites the recent announcement of the sale of NBA basketball team Houston Rockets for $2.2bn, suggesting that Manchester United could be worth in excess of $5bn.

FGT is currently trading at a 0.3% premium to cum-income NAV. The trust has a distinguished investment performance track record; it has beaten its FTSE All-Share benchmark over, one, three, five and 10 years. Comparing FGT to the 12 largest peers in the AIC UK Equity Income sector, its NAV total return ranks second over one year (5.3pp ahead of the sector weighted average) and first over three, five and 10 years (24.9pp, 45.7pp and 106.1pp ahead of the sector weighted averages respectively).

To read our latest research note on FGT, please click here.

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