Nick Bannerman is stepping down after five years as chairman of the Baillie Gifford Japan Trust, which invests in Japanese firms.
Keith Falconer, who has been a director since 2014, will take on the position after the annual meeting in December. Falconer will relinquish his position as chair of the company's audit committee.
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“I am confident that the company will benefit from his stewardship,’’ said Bannerman.
During the six months to the end of February 2019, the net asset value decreased by 16% to 700.2p while the share price fell by 13.6%. The TOPIX, Japanese stock exchange, fell by 8.9% in sterling terms during the same period.
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The trust's report stated: “This is disappointing. However, we continue to believe that it is more meaningful to consider performance over longer time horizons. Over the past three years the NAV of your company is up by 64.4% and the share price by 68.3%. The TOPIX rose by 40.4% in sterling terms during the same period. This is encouraging. Herein we see one of the challenges of equity investing in action."
At 28th February 2019, the Company had total assets of £757.4 million, before deduction of bank loans of £111.4 million. The company is managed by Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh based fund management group with around £190 billion under management and advice as at 20 March 2019.
