Just a brief post to say I will be moving house in the coming few days and it will be at least a week or so before the broadband connection is up and running at the new property - so no posts for a little while.
Its been quite a while coming and lots of twists and turns. The one aspect that stands out for me however is the dramatic fall in professional standards amongst the legal people compared to the 1980s when I was doing the job.
Anyhow, fingers crossed for a smooth transition and back asap!
This blog is designed to record the investment journey of a UK based small investor. I hope to make a modest contribution to the collective wealth of investing knowledge made freely available to ordinary people.
Tuesday 15 November 2016
Friday 4 November 2016
Goodbye Motley Fool!

I am sure many thousands of ordinary people have found inspiration and guidance from all the many forum members who gladly pass on the wisdom of their own invaluable experience and expertise.
I would check out my favourite boards at least 2 or 3 times each week and have enjoyed the banter and wit from many of the regulars which makes it feel like a real community. I guess many will be feeling a sense of loss as the closure is about to happen in less than two weeks.
On the bright side, a few of the regulars are talking about some continuity replacement forum. Indeed one - Lemon Fools is already up and running!
So, thanks to all at Motley Fool for all the articles and discussions over the past few years and I hope many regulars will meet up again in the future.
Feel free to leave a comment below with your experience of TMF.
Tuesday 1 November 2016
TR Property Trust - Portfolio Purchase
Following my acquisition of Tritax Big Box last month, I have recently added TR Property trust to my ISA portfolio.
TR Property (TRY) is a £1.2bn FTSE 250-listed closed-ended fund. The Trust was formed in 1905 and has been a dedicated property investor through the Ordinary share class since 1982.
Over the last five years the shares have generated a total return of 105%, but post Brexit the share price has retreated below 300p with the discount to NAV widening from an average of 2% to 15% which provides an attractive entry point for my new purchase.
The fund is managed by Thames River and aims to maximise the total return by investing in international property shares and direct property mostly in the south east of UK. Manager, Marcus Phayre-Mudge has been involved in property investment since 1992 and has been involved in running the Investment Trust since 2004.
At the end of September the largest geographic exposure was the 38% weighting in the UK, with France making up a further 17% and Germany 25%. Retail and office space accounted for 30% and 26% respectively, with another 27% in residential and the remainder divided between industrials and diversified. The main investment areas at the moment are shopping centres, residential property in Germany and offices in London’s West End.
The largest holding is the 10.4% exposure to Unibail-Rodamco, a pan-European REIT that invests in shopping centres in Europe’s capital cities, as well as convention and exhibition centres in Paris. Next is Vonovia (formerly named Deutsche Annington) the largest German residential landlord makes up 8.5% and third largest is Land Securities, the UK’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT) by market cap and portfolio value, with a portfolio of £14.3bn including share of joint ventures and developments comprises 7.4%
TR Property has paid out 8.35p in dividends over the past year and will announce the next interim later this month. This provides a current yield of 2.8%. Dividends have increased by an average of 5% p.a. over the past 5 years. It has reasonable ongoing charges of 0.75% however there is also the provision for payment of a performance fee which added an extra 0.3% last year.
It is run by a specialist, well-resourced team who pick the holdings based on the underlying fundamentals and the strength of the managers. They have built up a good long-term track record and are upbeat about the prospects as they think that the lack of commercial property development over the last seven years will ensure that the demand from tenants will help drive rental growth.
The interim results are due later in November but here are the latest full year results for those who may want to look in more depth (link via Investegate).
TR Property (TRY) is a £1.2bn FTSE 250-listed closed-ended fund. The Trust was formed in 1905 and has been a dedicated property investor through the Ordinary share class since 1982.
Over the last five years the shares have generated a total return of 105%, but post Brexit the share price has retreated below 300p with the discount to NAV widening from an average of 2% to 15% which provides an attractive entry point for my new purchase.
The fund is managed by Thames River and aims to maximise the total return by investing in international property shares and direct property mostly in the south east of UK. Manager, Marcus Phayre-Mudge has been involved in property investment since 1992 and has been involved in running the Investment Trust since 2004.
At the end of September the largest geographic exposure was the 38% weighting in the UK, with France making up a further 17% and Germany 25%. Retail and office space accounted for 30% and 26% respectively, with another 27% in residential and the remainder divided between industrials and diversified. The main investment areas at the moment are shopping centres, residential property in Germany and offices in London’s West End.
The largest holding is the 10.4% exposure to Unibail-Rodamco, a pan-European REIT that invests in shopping centres in Europe’s capital cities, as well as convention and exhibition centres in Paris. Next is Vonovia (formerly named Deutsche Annington) the largest German residential landlord makes up 8.5% and third largest is Land Securities, the UK’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT) by market cap and portfolio value, with a portfolio of £14.3bn including share of joint ventures and developments comprises 7.4%
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10 Yr Performance (click to enlarge) |
TR Property has paid out 8.35p in dividends over the past year and will announce the next interim later this month. This provides a current yield of 2.8%. Dividends have increased by an average of 5% p.a. over the past 5 years. It has reasonable ongoing charges of 0.75% however there is also the provision for payment of a performance fee which added an extra 0.3% last year.
It is run by a specialist, well-resourced team who pick the holdings based on the underlying fundamentals and the strength of the managers. They have built up a good long-term track record and are upbeat about the prospects as they think that the lack of commercial property development over the last seven years will ensure that the demand from tenants will help drive rental growth.
The interim results are due later in November but here are the latest full year results for those who may want to look in more depth (link via Investegate).
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