Performance Fees

Rear Window in today's AFR draws attention to the performance fee issue in TOP and TEK.

The net tangible assets (NTA) per share of TOP might have fallen 8.8 per cent over calendar 2020, but that didn’t stop it charging investors a performance fee of $5.5 million for the six months to December 31.
Normally, a LIC would charge investors a performance fee only once the fund’s net asset value is higher than a previous high-water mark.
However, TOP’s investment management agreement has a clause that allows the measurement of returns to be reset at the start of every financial year, without any shortfall in the previous year carried forward.

"Investors were slugged with the $5.5 million performance fee just for making back some of the 24 per cent fall in NTA from 80.1¢ to 61¢ the fund suffered over FY20.
To add insult to injury, the poor returns for some investors were amplified by Thorney’s right to charge underwater investors performance fees on the reset to zero every July 1."