Lazard World Trust Fund

Investment summary

Lazard World Trust Fund (WTR) is differentiated from the majority of peers by its focus on discounted assets. Its portfolio is a blend of closed-end funds, investment trusts and holding companies that trade at a discount to the value of their assets, and in particular those where the underlying assets are also undervalued. Manager Kun Deng and his Discounted Assets team at Lazard Asset Management are focused on opportunities wherever they arise, with a longstanding bias to Asian and emerging markets. A key part of the WTR strategy is to engage with the underlying holdings to help unlock value through initiatives such as higher dividend policies, and in the spirit of ‘practising what they preach’, the fund has announced a new 6% annual distribution, paid quarterly, which will make it one of the highest-yielding equity-focused investment companies.