The Wellcome Trust has reported a 16.9 per cent return on its £20.9bn investment portfolio in the past year, according to documents recently filed.
According to the charity’s annual report and accounts, running to September 2017, its portfolio grew by £3.5bn year-on-year, the same amount as the previous year. The charity spent £1.4bn, including £1.1bn on charitable activities, taking the value of its endowment at the end of the year to £23.2bn.
Like the previous year, the charity says its increased exposure to the euro, instead of pound sterling, helped it achieve such a high return.
But it said the big driver was buoyant equity markets, which brought strong gains in its public equity positions and underpinned a positive environment for its hedge fund and private equity portfolios.
The charity plans to spend £900m a year on average on charitable activities over the next five years.
But the charity plans additional discretionary funding if the investment portfolio performance is sufficiently strong.
An introduction to the report, co-authored by chair Eliza Manningham-Buller and director Jeremy Farrar, says: “Our investment portfolio returned 16.9 per cent in the year to September 2017; this equates to £3.5bn on the year’s starting value of £20.9bn.
“The 9.1 per cent annual return over the past decade is an excellent result given that this period included the worst financial crisis in living memory.”
The report goes on to say the charity expects future returns to be “more muted”, but it is confident that the portfolio will continue to generate sufficient cash flow to support charitable expenditure.
Manningham-Buller and Farrar pay tribute to Danny Truell, who served as the charity’s chief investment officer from 2005 until September this year, when he moved to a non-executive role for health reasons.
According to the accounts, the highest paid member of the charity’s investment team was paid £3.7m in 2016/17, up from £3m the previous year.
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