Improving performance under new lead manager

The European Investment Trust (EUT) aims to generate long-term capital growth from a diversified portfolio of European equities. Since August 2016, EUT has been managed by Craig Armour, who follows the disciplined Edinburgh Partners valuation-driven investment process, aiming to buy stocks that are trading on a five-year P/E multiple (Y5 P/E) of less than 11x. The manager is currently more cautious on the outlook for continental European equities as EUT’s portfolio Y5 P/E is towards the high end of its 7x to 11x long-term historical range. As a result, EUT is currently ungeared and Armour is not planning to increase cyclical exposure in the near term. Near-term investment performance has improved versus the peer group and the benchmark, and EUT has increased or maintained its ordinary annual dividends since 2009.