Like the uplift a sports team can receive when a new boss comes in, former Paris Saint-Germain Academy footballer Zehrid Osmani has turned around the fortunes of global equity investment trust Martin Currie Global Portfolio (MNP).

Something of a laggard before Osmani joined in June 2018, the trust is the top performing trust in the global equity sector over the past 12 months, delivering a share price total return of 30.4%, well ahead of the 18.2% sector average.

That return was also delivered without gearing which is essentially borrowing to invest in the hope of amplifying returns (it can also amplify losses). Gearing is a method used by the majority of trusts in the AIC’s global equity sector.

Martin Currie Global Portfolio’s track record over three and five years is still decent, beating its FTSE World benchmark by 6.6% over three years and 3.6% over five years respectively, according to the trust’s factsheet.

But it’s in the past year or so since Osmani joined, and took over as sole manager in October 2018, that the trust has really started to perform well.

While the impact of the coronavirus is unknown, having exposure to global equities means you benefit from geographical diversification and aren’t dependent on a single country’s economic fortunes.

Osmani looks for ‘quality growth’ stocks. His philosophy is that companies with a high and sustainable return on invested capital generate above-average total returns over the long term.

With an ongoing charge of 0.65% a year, Martin Currie Global Portfolio has performed better than other popular trusts in the category like Witan (WTAN), Majedie (MAJE) and Lindsell Train (LTI) over the past 12 months.

It has zero discount policy meaning the trust will buy back shares in the market if it is trading below net asset value, or issue more shares if it is trading at a premium. Investors should also note that it takes 12.5% of any outperformance of the FTSE World benchmark above 1%, capped at 1% of net asset value. Performance fees aren’t that common among its peer group.

A concentrated book of 33 stocks across 16 countries, the trust holds two of its benchmark’s top holdings in its own top 10 – Microsoft and Visa – but otherwise the composition of its portfolio remains largely different.

Its investments include industrial gas giant Linde, Asian life insurance company AIA and Italian luxury apparel brand Moncler.

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