OREANDA-NEWS. The repositioning of Hansa Trust's portfolio from April 2014 has had a positive impact on performance, the main change being a reallocation from large-cap UK equity holdings to selected core regional funds. Wilson Sons has outperformed its local market, but the depreciation of the Brazilian real has affected its sterling value and Wilson Sons now constitutes 15% of the portfolio. Hansa would look to increase uncorrelated investments in due course if it sees the risk/reward balance in equity markets as less attractive. The combination of Hansa's long-term endowment style of investment and a wide discount to NAV makes for an interesting, differentiated proposition.

The discount to cum income NAV stands at 30% compared with the three-year average of 26% and a minimum of 18%. Weak sentiment towards emerging markets probably plays a role in this but, as noted, Brazilian exposure is now lower and even without a reversal in market views the look-through discount of 38% suggests significant scope for narrowing.