Thanks for your post. ( have been a largish holder of LSF,...

Thanks for your post. ( have been a largish holder of LSF, however not a this time)
LSF has always traded at between 15 to 20% discount to pre-tax nta and this is despite heroic buying by Directors. My feeling is that LICs are a thing of the past as ETFs have eaten their lunch. Performance fees of 15% are a joke as 85% of so called ‘Active Fund Managers’ cannot beat the appropriate index over the longer term, and their monstrous fees are the reason. Despite this, Fund Managers have become extraordinary wealthy while the source of their wealth (the punters) remain impoverished. The performance of Platinum Funds compared to the billion dollar worth of the founders is an example worth looking into. Unless one was very lucky by investing in the Platinum International Fund at exactly the ‘right’ time an investor would have lost his shirt. Despite this, the Financial Press is forever treating various fund managers as some form of heroes.The objective evidence is that the vast majority can’t beat the index, so why pay them?
The founders of LSF have done much more than any other manager to support the SP, but really, it has not succeeded.
. There are times to buy certain LICs. Find an LIC with large profit reserves ( say 3 years worth of dividends ) and only buy at nta or less.