OREANDA-NEWS. International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) is an established investor in the high-growth area of biotechnology. It is differentiated from peers by including unquoted companies (<10% of assets) alongside quoted holdings. The biotech sector seems largely to have shrugged off recent criticism over excessive pricing in some areas and long-term performance has been impressive, with the benchmark NASDAQ Biotech Index up 304% over five years compared with a return of 45% for the FTSE All-Share. IBT has outperformed the benchmark over one and two years under new manager Carl Harald Janson and is top of its peer group for one-year NAV total returns; the discount to NAV, while in line with averages, remains wider than peers, suggesting a relative valuation opportunity.

At 10 December IBT's shares stood at an 11.6% discount to cum-income net asset value. This is broadly in line with the one-, three- and five-year averages of 10.9%, 13.7% and 13.7%. Following a large share buyback in November 2014 (5.9m or 13.4% of shares) to facilitate the exit of a major shareholder, the board has continued with ad hoc buybacks; so far in 2015, 2.6m shares have been repurchased at a cost of ?13.0m. The willingness of the board to act as a marginal buyer should give reassurance that material widening in IBT's discount is unlikely except in the event of market dislocation.