History
The company was established in 1889 as the Transvaal Mortgage Loan and Finance Company, [4] led by chairman W.J. Thompson, [5] and invested in what is now South Africa. [4]
It was renamed the British Empire Land Mortgage and Loan Company in 1906, and British Empire Securities and General Trust in 1964. [6]
Asset Value Investors, an employee-owned management company, was established to manage the firm, then valued at £6 million, in 1985. [7]
The company's goal of acquiring other companies trading below their Net Asset Value led it to attempt takeovers of other investment trusts trading at a discount. [4] In 1986, the company acquired Ashdown Investment Trust for £66 million. [8] In 1989, it mounted a hostile takeover bid for Schroder Global Trust: it had been building up a stake in the target company over a two-year period. [9] In 1995, it acquired the Selective Assets Trust (formerly the Edinburgh Assets Trust) [10] for £42 million. [8]
It simplified its name from British Empire Securities and General Trust to British Empire Trust in 2015. [6]
In 2016, the activist US hedge fund, Elliott Management Corporation, built up a large stake in the company. [11] [12] [13] [14] The investment was seen as one of Elliott's successful investment positions in the UK. [15]
It changed its name from British Empire Trust to AVI Global Trust in May 2019. [16] [17]
Between 2019 and 2020, the company invested heavily in SoftBank Group and other Japanese stocks. [18] The company's strategy has been to take advantage of Softbank's share buyback programme. [19] [20] This has supported the company's market capitalisation on the London Stock Exchange which was £751 million in July 2020. [21] It has also built up a significant holding in Pershing Square Holdings, a hedge fund. [22]
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GBP £1.3 Billion (January 2025) [1] 