Trojan Fund

Troy

Overview

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A multi-asset fund that aims to protect investors’ capital and grow its value in real terms over the long term. We combine cautious asset allocation with careful selection of high-quality companies, purchased at fair valuations.

What does the Fund do?

Through a long-term, long-only approach, the Fund has the flexibility to invest in a broad range of asset classes. We primarily invest in developed market equities and bonds, gold-related investments, as well as cash and short-dated Treasury bills.

Why this Fund?

Aimed at investors who want a multi-asset fund emphasising capital preservation and absolute returns. The Fund’s emphasis on downside risk management and high-quality securities aim to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns over the long-term. The Fund integrates ESG and stewardship in accordance with Troy’s Responsible Investment & Stewardship Policy and also adheres to Troy’s Climate Change Mitigation Policy, in accordance with article 8 of SFDR.

View our SFDR disclosure

The team

Sebastian Lyon

Founder & Chief Investment Officer

Bio

Sebastian Lyon

Founder & Chief Investment Officer

Sebastian is Troy’s Chief Investment Officer and is responsible for Troy’s Multi-Asset Strategy. He is the Senior Fund Manager for the Trojan Fund and Investment Manager of Personal Assets Trust.

Sebastian began his career in 1989 at Singer & Friedlander Investment Management. Joining Stanhope Investment Management (the management company for the GEC Pension Fund) in 1995, he jointly managed the £2 billion equity portfolio and the Fund’s asset allocation. He was appointed Director in 1999, and in 2000 he left to establish Troy. Gaining his BSc in Politics from Southampton University, Sebastian holds the ASIP qualification and is an Associate Member of the CFA Society of the UK.

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Charlotte Yonge CFA

Senior Fund Manager

Bio

Charlotte Yonge CFA

Senior Fund Manager

Charlotte is the Assistant Fund Manager of the Trojan Fund and Personal Assets Trust and Fund Manager of the Trojan Ethical Fund, with responsibility for multi-asset coverage and the analysis of global companies and their selection for Troy’s portfolios.

Charlotte joined Troy in 2013 from Ruffer Investment Management, where she worked as an Investment Associate. Graduating from Cambridge with an MA in Modern Languages, Charlotte holds the CISI Diploma and is a CFA Charterholder.

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Marc de Vos CFA

Investment Analyst

Bio

Marc de Vos CFA

Investment Analyst

Marc is an Investment Analyst working on the multi-asset mandates, with responsibility for analysis of global companies and their selection for Troy’s portfolios.

Marc joined Troy in June 2019 from RWC Asset Management, where he worked as an Investment Analyst. Marc holds a BEng in Electromechanical Engineering and a PhD in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Southampton University. Marc is a CFA Charterholder.

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Michael Kinsella

Investment Specialist

Bio

Michael Kinsella

Investment Specialist

Michael is an investment specialist on the Multi-Asset Strategy. Michael joined the Business Development Team at Troy in May 2016 from Veritas Investment Management where he worked as an Assistant Portfolio Manager.

Michael graduated from Dublin Business School with a BA (hons) in Business Studies in 2005. Michael holds a Masters in Wealth Management from the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investments and the IMC.

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Commentary

November 2024

Your Fund returned +0.7% during the month, compared to +2.5% for the FTSE All-Share Index (TR).

November was a busy month for our investment team, with colleagues meeting companies across the world, from Switzerland to Seattle.  Of portfolio holdings, we met with Unilever, Nestlé, Microsoft, Heineken, Pernod and Visa, alongside various other companies not currently owned.  The preparation that goes into these meetings, combined with the discussions that follow, provide invaluable insights into current holdings and new ideas.

The most in-depth company encounters are often investor days hosted by the companies themselves, and we attended Unilever’s, Nestlé’s and Mastercard’s in the month.  Unilever’s event underlined our confidence in the company’s improved execution, which we wrote about in depth in October’s fact sheet.  When it comes to Nestlé, the shares have been weak since we reduced the holding at the beginning of 2022.  In hindsight, we should have sold more but we believe that there is a margin of safety in today’s valuation of 16x earnings and 4% dividend yield.  The investor day served to underline that Nestlé’s end-markets will remain challenging for some time, but that the company is increasing investment behind its brands and improving the focus of its innovation efforts.  We believe that shareholder returns from here are likely to be compelling.

One of our colleagues attended the Mastercard investor day and another met with Visa’s CFO.  We currently own Visa and American Express in the Fund.  These meetings, combined with an in-depth update on the sector written by the team, have helped in re-emphasising to us the attractiveness of investing in these payments networks.  Visa and Amex are both well placed to enable the switch of commercial (business-to-business) payments from cash, cheque or bank transfer, to card transactions.  Businesses have been slower than consumers to digitise, but this is now happening from a low base.  On top of that, Visa’s revenues are increasingly comprised of value-added services which are growing strongly double digits.  We believe that, as the consumer card market becomes more mature, these will provide strong drivers of sales growth for many years to come.

Key facts

Fund Manager

Sebastian Lyon

Assistant Fund Manager

Charlotte Yonge

Inception date

31/05/2001

Currency

Sterling

Available share classes

O, I, S, X

ISIN (O Class)

GB00B01BP952 (Acc)
GB0034243732 (Inc)

Bloomberg (O Class)

CFTROJA_LN (Acc)
CFTROJI_LN (Inc)

Sedol (O Class)

B01BP95 (Acc)
3424373 (Inc)

Fund rating

© 2024 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Benchmarks

For more information on the benchmarks used please refer to the ‘use of benchmarks’ section in the fund information sheet

Ongoing Charges

‘O’ (ordinary) shares: 1.03%
‘X’ (platform) shares: 0.88%

‘O’ ACC SHARE CLASS as at 30/10/2024

413.43p

Fund size as at 30/11/2024

£4,999m

‘O’ INC SHARE CLASS as at 30/10/2024

330.29p

Performance

Source: Lipper, Waystone Management UK Limited

31/05/200130/11/201430/11/201930/11/202130/11/202331/05/2024
Since Launch10 Years5 Years3 Years1 Year6 Months
Trojan O Income355.664.027.96.48.43.7
UK Retail Price Index124.352.034.324.33.61.1
FTSE All-Share TR266.481.132.225.515.71.9
Bank of England Base Rate67.114.711.911.45.32.6

Discrete Calendar Annual Returns (%)200120022003200420052006200720082009201020112012201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024
Trojan O Income0.64.115.410.315.9126.11.111.614.48.52.1-3.18.93.212.34.1-310.77.412.1-3.82.76.6

Performance is calculated on a total return basis, net of fees, in sterling terms. Past performance is not a guide to future performance

Source: Lipper, Waystone Management UK Limited. Since Launch (31/05/2001) to .

Risk and Volatility since launch

Source: Lipper, Waystone Management UK Limited

Risk Analysis Since Launch (31/05/2001)Trojan O IncomeFTSE All-Share TR
Total Return355.6266.4
Max Drawdown-13.7-45.6
Best Month8.912.7
Worst Month-4.7-15.1
Positive Months66.759.2
Annualised Volatility6.013.5

Performance is calculated on a total return basis, net of fees, in sterling terms.

Maximum Drawdown measures the worst investment period

Annualised Volatility is measured by the annualised standard deviation of the monthly returns

Source: Lipper, Waystone Management UK Limited. As at .

Asset allocation

Top 10 holdings (excluding government bonds)Fund %
Invesco Physical Gold6.68822563368039
iShares Physical Gold5.87698985158548
Unilever5.00237866591162
Visa3.76861106068133
Nestle2.4634350584454
Alphabet2.43961801165546
Microsoft2.4228269230717
Diageo2.2339302898581
Heineken Holding1.86760464343217
VeriSign1.63985083743421
Total Top 1034.4034709757559
8 Other Equity holdings6.86164868336707
US TIPS33.5707078929057
Short-dated Gilts12.1327917742183
US Short-dated Treasuries9.15052792078947
UK Index-Linked3.64747766309944
Cash0.233375089864087
Total100

Asset allocation and holdings subject to change. As at

Fund literature

Document name Date Open/download Archived documents
Factsheet     View archive Hide archive
UCITS KIID     View share classes Hide share classes

Annual Report

 January 2024 View document Download document  

Interim Report

 July 2023 View document Download document  

Fund Information Sheet

 View document Download document  
Prospectus & Additional Investor Information     View documents Hide documents

Sustainability-related Disclosures

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Investment Report     View documents Hide documents
Special Paper     View papers Hide papers

Sustainable Investment Labels Statement

Sustainable investment labels help investors find products that have a specific sustainability goal. This fund does not have a UK sustainable investment label as it does not have a sustainable objective as part of its investment objective.  Despite not having a sustainable investment objective, when investing in companies, Troy integrates the analysis of sustainability characteristics into its investment decision-making. Troy also considers the steps companies are taking in relation to climate change mitigation.

Important Information

Past performance is not a guide to future performance. The value of a fund and any income from it may go down as well as up and investors may get back less than they invested. Changes in rates of exchange may cause the value of investments to go up or down. Returns may increase or decrease as a result of currency fluctuations. This data is provided for information only and should not be reproduced, published or disseminated in any manner. Although Troy considers the data to be reliable, no warranty is given as to its accuracy or completeness. Any comparisons against indices are for illustrative purposes only. In line with the Fund’s prospectus, the Fund is authorised to invest in transferable securities and money market instruments issued or guaranteed by an EEA state, one or more local authorities, a third country, or a public international body to which one or more EEA states belong.  The Investment Manager would only consider investing more than 35% of the Fund’s assets in UK or US government issued transferable securities or approved money market instruments. 

Some of the information contained on this page: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers​; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. 

Important information for U.S. persons

The securities described on this website are neither available nor offered in the United States of America (including the District of Columbia or any other territory occupied or possessed by the United States of America) or to U.S. persons (including residents of the United States of America, residents within an area subject to its jurisdiction and U.S. persons who are resident outside the United States of America).

For the full fund disclaimer please refer to the Fund factsheet.

Please refer to Troy’s Glossary of Terms available here.

How to invest

Find more information on how to invest in this fund and where it is available.

How to invest

Website Terms and Conditions

Welcome to the website of Troy Asset Management Limited (“Troy”, “we”, “our”, “us”).  Please read these terms and conditions carefully.  By accessing this website you are indicating that you have read, acknowledge and agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions and that you have read Troy’s Privacy Notice (which can be accessed here).  If you do not agree to these terms, you must stop using this website immediately.

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The information on this website is directed at persons in the United Kingdom (“UK”) and not otherwise. The availability of any funds managed by Troy or services provided by Troy mentioned on this website in any jurisdiction other than the UK is subject to local restrictions.  Except as specifically set out below the funds mentioned on this website have not been registered or approved for distribution under the laws of any jurisdiction other than the UK.

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Trojan Investment Funds and its sub-funds are UK funds established under the provisions of the European Directives on the co-ordination of laws, regulations, and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (“UCITS”) (Directive 2009/65/EC) as implemented in the UK.  Trojan Investment Funds is authorised by the FCA.  Certain sub-funds are available for distribution in Ireland (for professional investors only), Singapore (for institutional investors only), Switzerland (for qualified investors only) and are registered for distribution to the public in the UK.

Trojan Fund (Ireland), Trojan Income Fund (Ireland), Trojan Global Income Fund (Ireland) and Trojan Ethical Fund (Ireland) are sub-funds of Trojan Funds (Ireland) plc which is an Irish UCITS subject to the laws of the Republic of Ireland.  Each is authorised in the Republic of Ireland by the Central Bank of Ireland, and is a scheme recognised by the FCA under the Financial Services and Markets 2000 Act (“FSMA”).  Trojan Fund (Ireland) and Trojan Income Fund (Ireland) are registered for distribution in Austria (certain share classes only), Germany (certain share classes only), Ireland, Italy (for institutional investors only), Singapore (for institutional investors only), Spain (certain share classes only), Switzerland and the UK.  Trojan Fund (Ireland) is also registered in Portugal (certain share classes only). Trojan Ethical Fund (Ireland) is registered for distribution in Ireland, Singapore (for institutional investors only), Spain (certain share classes only), Switzerland and the UK.  Trojan Global Income Fund (Ireland) is registered for distribution in Ireland, Spain (certain share classes only), Switzerland and the UK.

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This website as well as the securities described on this website are not intended for use and are not offered in the United States of America (including the District of Columbia or any other territory occupied or possessed by the United States of America) or to U.S. Persons (including residents of the United States of America, residents within an area subject to its jurisdiction and U.S. Persons who are resident outside the United States of America).  As such, by accepting these terms you represent and warrant that you are not a U.S. Person as defined under Regulation S of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

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The value of investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and investors may get back less than they invested.  Changes in rates of exchange may cause the value of investments to go up or down.  Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

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We keep our terms and conditions under review.  These terms and conditions were most recently updated on 8 September 2023.

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  1. Contact details

Troy Asset Management Limited, 33 Davies Street, London W1K 4BP, United Kingdom; Telephone +44 (0)20 7499 4030; Email [email protected].  Troy Asset Management Limited is a limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 3930846 and has its registered office at 33 Davies Street, London W1K 4BP , United Kingdom. Except where otherwise required by applicable law or regulations, all communication and documentation sent to you by Troy will be in English.  You may communicate with us in English.

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