29-Mar-2021:  I received an email today from Emma Davidson, Head of Corporate Affairs at GVF - the Global Value Fund, which I hold shares in.  The email contained a link to this video message from Emma about whether GVF is run for income or growth investors.  The answer is both, because although they pay out virtually all of their after-tax-and-expenses profits to their shareholders as dividends, they have a very shareholder-friendly DRP in place which allows you to reinvest the div's for growth instead of taking them as income.  Never dillutive to other shareholders, and you always get the best possible price.  

Emma's husband is Miles Staude, the PM (portfolio manager) of GVF, and he is on the GVF Board along with industry heavyweights Geoff Wilson and Chris Cuffe.  I've talked to Miles and Emma on a few occasions during their roadshows, which usually coincide with the Wilson Asset Management (WAM Funds) + Future Generation (FG) Funds roadshows.  When ever they come to town, it's usually WAM then FG then GVF for those who want to make a full day of it.  I always did.  Miles and Emma have only been flying out here once per year in recent years (they are based in London) rather than twice as they used to, and they didn't come during 2020 because of COVID of course, so looking forward to hearing from them again when things get back to normal and the roadshows start up again. 

It was talking to Miles in 2019 that convinced me to buy into BAF before Geoff Wilson's WAM Funds took over the management and BAF became WMA, and that was a profitable exercise.  He doesn't usually have a lot of good ASX-based ideas because his main happy hunting grounds are in the UK and Europe, plus the USA, but he does occasionally get involved in a value play here in Oz, and it's always worth following him when he does.  Miles was on the BAF board there for a while, as GVF owned a decent chunk of BAF prior to Wilson taking over the management of that fund (which became WAM Funds' seventh LIC - WAM Alternative Assets - ASX:WMA - and was positively re-rated by the market in the process).

More Info:  https://www.globalvaluefund.com.au/

[I hold GVF shares.]

24-Sep-2020:  The following is from an email I received today from Miles Staude and Emma Davidson, the husband-and-wife team that run GVF (the Global Value Fund) out of London:

Dear All,
 
Given the meaningful falls seen across most asset classes so far in September, the Company has asked the manager to provide the market with an update on the performance of the Global Value Fund investment portfolio.
 
The manager estimates that from the end of August through to 21 September 2020, the Global Value Fund investment portfolio had increased in value by 1.5%.

In comparison, over this same period, global share markets fell by 2.6% in Australian dollar terms, while the local Australian share market had fallen by 3.6%.

Please find the announcement to the ASX here.

As a reminder to all shareholders, GVF shares will trade ex-entitlement to the FY2020 fully franked final dividend of 2.9 cents per share next Wednesday, 30 September 2020.

Kind regards
Miles and Emma

--- ends ---

[I am not currently holding GVF, but I often do.  They tend to underperform in strongly rising markets, and outperform in falling markets, so they are a nice little hedge-type-stock with a unique approach to discount capture in closed-end-funds (CEFs, like LICs and LITs).  They were running short of franking credits - in the past couple of years, but they've recently returned to fully franking their divs, which is positive.]

13-June-2020:  Global Value Fund (GVF) May 2020 Investment Update and NTA Report

GVF's top 5 still includes a 6% exposure (6% of the GVF Fund) to Ellerston Global Investments (ASX: EGI), but BAF has now dropped out of GVF's top 5 holdings.  However, BAF still has Miles Staude on their board, and Miles runs GVF, so my gut feel is that GVF have not sold any BAF.  Their BAF position would likely still be in their top 10, but has dropped out of the top 5 due to (I suspect) increased valuations for those other positions.  BAF has been trading at around a 35% discount to their NTA (/NAV), so you wouldn't be selling at that discount, particularly when the management transition to WAM (Wilson Asset Management) International is now so close.  I have mentioned before that the GVF board has Miles himself on it of course, plus legendary investor, funds manager and philanthropist Chris Cuffe, as well as Geoff Wilson (founder of WAM Funds and Chairman of the 6 LICs managed by WAM Funds, as well as founder of the Future Generation Funds - FGX & FGG).

I often park money in GVF, for the dividend, but I don't currently have any GVF shares.  I do however hold BAF, WAM, WLE, WGB and FGX shares at this point.