Listed Investment Companies (LIC’s) – what’s our view

Hi Peter,

Both ARG and AFI are sound investments, if not a little boring. They are low cost, have been around a long time and are fairly inactive market participants. You’re right, ETFs get a lot more air time simply because they are more heavily promoted, spend more on advertising and are sexier than the old ARG and AFI. The other aspect is that ETFs track an index mirroring the value of the underlying assets while an LIC or LIT can actually trade at a discount to their underlying assets.

I actually have a great client who is also involved in the APEX Foundation, he’s a savvy guy,  done very well over the years, we manage money for him however he also swears by ARG and AFI as a core for his portfolio.

The broader LIC/LIT universe is big and there are many things we could cover here. In broad terms, some very much serve a purpose, others don’t. The king of LIC’s Geoff Wilson has just launched a new one called WAM Strategic Value which is designed to take advantage of the many LIC’s that trade at a discount to their assets, generally a result of poor performance, a risky portfolio composition, a lack of marketing etc. Here are the LIC’s he is targeting which could be a good place to start.

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Wilson Asset Management – targeted LIC’s (source WAM)

LAST UPDATED 21/05/2021 16:25

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Wilson Asset Management – targeted LIC’s (source WAM)

LAST UPDATED 21/05/2021 16:25