Nick Train’s Finsbury fund slides further as AI triggers jitters
Nick Train’s Finsbury Growth and Income Trust (FGIT) has endured another torrid few days after being caught up in the sell-off in data and software stocks.
The trust is heavily exposed to London’s leading listed software companies, all of which have faced heavy pressure since the launch of Anthropic’s legal productivity tool on Monday.
At the end of 2025, Sage Group accounted for 12 per cent of FGIT’s portfolio, Experian 11.6 per cent, London Stock Exchange for 11.2 per cent, and RELX 10.8 per cent.
As a result of its exposure, FGIT’s shares have lost over six per cent this week. At the market close on Wednesday, its share price stood at 729p, its lowest level in nearly six years.
Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell said: “Train is a high conviction investor and runs punchy positions, so a simultaneous downturn across some of his biggest holdings is going to sting.”
“This shake-out may yet prove short-lived and overblown. Some measure of calm appears to have returned to trading in software services stocks today, though there are still signs of unease. The message for the future is clear though: artificial intelligence can be friend or foe, and woe betide those who fall in the latter camp.”
Train turnaround plan derailed
The sell-off will put Train, whose firm Lindsell Train has run FGIT since 2000, under further pressure after a torrid year in 2025.
FGIT saw its net asset value per share fall 7.6 per cent in 2025, while the benchmark FTSE All Share rose 24 per cent over the year. This was the fifth year in a row in which the fund failed to beat its benchmark, leading to questions about Train’s investment strategy.
Train survived a crunch ‘continuation vote’ at the firm’s AGM in January, garnering 97 per cent of the vote from shareholders.
In a note to investors in the fund’s December factsheet, Train apologised for the performance but remained committed to his investment strategy.
“We made no change to the portfolio weightings in your company in December, nor any disposals or additions of holdings and, what is more, there are none imminent,” he wrote.
“This means that investors, doubtless as bitterly disappointed by last year’s performance as me, must decide whether the current portfolio constituents are going to continue to perform poorly into the New Year and beyond, or if 2026 will bring some respite.
“In other words, if performance is to improve, it is unlikely to be because of any market change to the current portfolio, but because the current portfolio constituents begin to do better.”
Since taking over Finsbury at the turn of the millennium, the fund is up over 700 per cent far outstripping the FTSE All Share, which has risen 317 per cent.