Rogoff’s Technology Trust lands first performance fee in 10yrs

Polar Capital's £357m Technology Trust’s net asset value jumped 17% over the past year, prompting the trust to rake in its first performance fee for ten years.

Manager Ben Rogoff outperformed the Dow Jones World Technology Index's rise of 4.7% and the FTSE World Index rise of 9.3%, with the trust's share price increasing 21.7% overall.

The group said the performance had prompted it to make a payout of £3.3m.

In a statement the group said: "The directors are pleased to report that the good performance of the Company has resulted in the payment of a performance fee for the first time in 10 years."

Rogoff's strategy of selling down last-generation PC companies and enterprise software groups, such as Microsoft, and favouring manufacturers of smartphone tablets has been paying off in recent years.

The trust returned 73.5% over three years, against a benchmark of 60.9%, according to Morningstar data.

Key holdings for the manager include Apple, worth 8.5% and one of the largest technology stocks in the world, and Oracle which accounts for 3.9%.