F&C Investment Trust retains award for Best Report & Accounts

Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust (FCIT) last night picked up a prestigious award from the Association of Investment Companies for the second year running.

The £1.7bn FTSE 100 investment trust received the award for Best Report & Accounts (Generalist) at the AIC Best Information to Shareholders Awards, presented at the Association's annual dinner.

The judges praised the FCIT Report & Accounts for "its excellent chairman and manager statements - both were informative and very frank in the context of the current market conditions." There was also a good outline of performance, they added.

The three-strong independent judging panel was chaired by Charles Cade, a respected investment companies analyst at Numis Securities. Mark Dampier, head of research at Hargreaves Lansdown, and Keiron Root, editor of What Investment magazine, completed the trio.

Jeremy Tigue, manager of Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, said that the judges' comments echoed those made by shareholders at the trust's AGM earlier this month. "In an environment when some people have been very opaque about what has gone wrong in the markets and the global economy, we feel that honesty is the best policy, and our shareholders appreciate that," he explained. "We are delighted to have won this award for the second year running, as it shows the judges appreciate our honesty and openness as much as our shareholders do."

Daniel Godfrey, director general of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), said: "There is still a marked difference between producing information that is a legal requirement, and those who go above and beyond what is required when it comes to communicating with shareholders. One need only read a carefully worded chairman's or manager's statement of an annual report and accounts to understand and appreciate the difference."