Following the FA Cup Final last Saturday, and with the Premier League season set to conclude this Sunday, football fans will be turning their attention to theย World Cup. With the first game due to kick off onย 11 Juneย as Mexico face South Africa, the Association of Investment Companies (AIC)ย has estimated how much exposure investment trusts have to each qualifying country1.
This year there are 48 countries competing, including England and Scotland. While the two nations are fielding different teams, the available data on regional allocation does not allow for a breakdown between them, so they are both counted within the UK.
Including England and Scotland, investment trusts invest in 36 of the 48 countries competing, from developed markets such as the US and Japan to emerging ones such as Brazil and South Africa, and the tiny island country of Curaรงao (see full table below).
Investment trusts have most exposure to the UK, amounting to just over ยฃ70 billion of the industryโs total ยฃ268 billion of assets. This is followed by the US, with ยฃ56 billion invested.
A middle tier of World Cup qualifiers account for at least ยฃ1 billion of investment trust investment, including Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Korea Republic, France, Germany, Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia and Spain.
These countries are followed by smaller players in the investment trust universe, from South Africa and Belgium to Panama and Cรดte dโIvoire each of which accounts for less than ยฃ1 million of exposure.
Nick Britton, Research Director of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), said: โEver since the very first investment trust launched with the word โforeignโ in its name 158 years ago, investment trusts have offered an easy way to invest all over the world. Our league table of geographical exposure illustrates that this is still the case.
โNevertheless, with just weeks to go before the World Cup, itโs interesting to see that the best represented country continues to be the United Kingdom. Investment trustsโ UK exposure ranges from listed equities to property, infrastructure, renewable energy, private companies and early-stage businesses.โ
Investment trustsโ exposure to 36 World Cup contenders๎
| Country | ยฃm of industry assets |
| United Kingdom (England and Scotland) | 70,052.99 |
| United States | 56,039.46 |
| Canada | 6,821.31 |
| Japan | 6,637.32 |
| Netherlands | 5,471.24 |
| Korea Republic (South Korea) | 3,808.68 |
| France | 3,369.96 |
| Germany | 2,735.20 |
| Brazil | 1,980.86 |
| Sweden | 1,905.73 |
| Switzerland | 1,703.14 |
| Australia | 1,340.66 |
| Spain | 1,045.12 |
| South Africa | 629.91 |
| Belgium | 518.54 |
| Mexico | 375.00 |
| Norway | 360.10 |
| Czechia | 316.40 |
| Austria | 148.05 |
| Saudi Arabia | 104.43 |
| Portugal | 81.74 |
| Tรผrkiye | 69.58 |
| Morocco | 55.18 |
| Colombia | 46.93 |
| Uruguay | 39.62 |
| Argentina | 33.23 |
| Egypt | 18.53 |
| Ghana | 14.76 |
| Ecuador | 9.94 |
| New Zealand | 7.21 |
| Tunisia | 5.75 |
| Curaรงao | 4.36 |
| Qatar | 1.88 |
| Panama | 0.02 |
| Cรดte dโIvoire | 0.01 |
Source: theaic.co.uk / Morningstar (see notes to editors for details).
Home advantage
Investment trustsโ ยฃ70 billion of UK exposure is broadly spread across asset classes, with ยฃ24.7 billion in equities, ยฃ17.8 billion in infrastructure, ยฃ12.6 billion in property, ยฃ6.7 billion in venture capital trusts (VCTs) and ยฃ4.0 billion in private equity. The remainder is invested in flexible, specialist and debt mandates.
Non-qualifying countries
Investment trusts also offer exposure to several countries not represented in the World Cup. The chief of these is China, with ยฃ8.9 billion of exposure including ยฃ2.1 billion in Hong Kong. Taiwan accounts for another ยฃ6.3 billion of industry assets, India accounts for ยฃ2.7 billion and Vietnam ยฃ1.4 billion. Closer to home, investment trusts have ยฃ2.9 billion invested in Ireland.
