Trust has it off Pat as funds soar

AN INVESTMENT trust whose motto is “to protect and increase” yesterday revealed that shareholder funds under management had risen by almost £40 million in the second quarter of the year despite the market turmoil.

Personal Assets Trust (Pat), which maintains a policy to never cut its dividend rate, also announced an issue of a further 4,200 ordinary shares. In recent months the firm has issued close to £29m worth of shares.

In a trading statement yesterday, the Edinburgh-based firm shared its robust views on the global economy and said it believed investors were living in an “artificial world” that “cannot be sustained”.

It predicted the UK and likely the US would “give in to the temptation” to print money through further quantitative easing, added that the resulting “currency debasement” would be “fatal for the dollar and for sterling”.

Shareholder funds under management rose 9.4 per cent to £339.1m during the quarter. Pat’s net asset value per share rose by 2.6 per cent in the three months to the end of July, which compares with a 4.1 per cent fall in the FTSE All-Share Index. Its share price rose by 3 per cent during the period.