Your vote counts: investment trust AGMs in December 2024

December is a busy month for investment company annual general meetings, with 24 set to wrap up the year.

A number of global and country-specific emerging market trusts step up to the plate, while we’ll get more of an idea of whether the nascent recovery in the property market is broad-based as some commercial and residential property trusts report.

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Here, we round up some of the most eye-catching AGMs slated for December.

Ashoka India Equity

The Indian stock market has been on quite the roll, clocking up gains of 96% over the past five years – outperforming even America’s mighty S&P 500, which is up 90% in that time (all in local currency terms). Beating even these stellar returns is Ashoka India Equity Investment Ord (LSE:AIE), with shares up a stunning 168%.

Shareholders will be asked to vote to re-elect its board of directors, as well as giving the board the authority to buy back shares. In May, AIE’s shareholders approved the board’s request to continue issuing new shares. During its full-year to 30 June 2024, AIE issued more than 43 million new shares, raising £107.5 million.

AIE is an unconstrained portfolio of Indian equities, biased towards mid-caps and small-caps, led by former Goldman Sachs’ chief investment officer Prashant Khemka.

The trust has a unique charging structure. Rather than a traditional management fee, its investment adviser, WhiteOak Capital Management, receives a performance fee, meaning the managers accrue charges only should the trust outperform its benchmark, the MSCI India IMI index. This structure is designed to align the interest of the managers with that of shareholders.

International Biotechnology

The biotechnology industry is at an interesting point within what is an enduring and structural long-term theme. Populations around the world are getting older, richer and sicker and healthcare spending continues to rise, benefiting the kinds of companies in which International Biotechnology Ord (LSE:IBT) Trust invests.

Managers Ailsa Craig and Marek Poszepczynski are positive about what they call an equilibrium phase, with valuations starting to rise as investor appetite returns to the biotech sector. M&A has been a big driver of returns for the sector and any return since the pre-US-election downturn would also be positive.

Shareholders will be asked to vote on re-electing IBT’s directors, its auditor, and to approve the dividend policy, which sees it pay out 4% of its net asset value at the end of the previous financial year.

Fidelity Emerging Markets

One of four emerging or frontier market-related investment companies putting on an AGM in December, Fidelity Emerging Markets Ord (LSE:FEML) is a unique fund versus its rivals in that it has a number of tools it can draw on to secure returns for shareholders.

As well as investing in companies, it can short firms it is structurally bearish on, betting on their share prices falling. FEML currently has a number of short positions within the Chinese property market, where the view on these heavily indebted firms is very much negative.

Again, items on the agenda for shareholders to vote on include the re-election of directors and the auditor, as well as the ability to repurchase participating preference shares.