IIT has announced its final results for the 12 months ended 30 November 2013. Over the year Independent’s net asset value total return (including income) was 20.2%. By comparison the FTSE All-Share Index returned 19.8% and the FTSE World Index 22.5% over the same period.
IIT’s discount narrowed during the year, boosting the return to shareholders to 29.8%.
The Chairman’s statement apologises for not doing even better over the year, saying they were too cautious and held too much cash while markets were rising and that they had a defensive bias to the portfolio. The portfolio was little changed over the year but the statement mentions the addition of a holding in the John Laing Infrastructure Fund : JLIF. The ongoing charges ratio has fallen to 0.43% to 0.39% and the statement notes that this is one of the lowest in the industry.