Scottish Mortgage chairman to leave on a high

LONDON (ShareCast) - Global equities investment trust Scottish Mortgage gave its benchmark comparison index, the FTSE All World index, a pounding over the 6 months to 30 September.

The investment trust said its net asset value (NAV) per share soared 48% over the reporting period, versus a 28% increase in the FTSE All World (sterling) index, as the shares in its portfolio that had been hammered most during last year's fall out recovered strongly.

The results announced chairman Sir Donald MacKay to go out on a high, as he announced his intention to retire at the end of 2009. He will be replaced by John Scott, who has been on the Scottish Mortgage board since 2001. Scott is currently chairman of Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust and deputy chairman of Endace (LSE: EDA.L - news) .

'While stock markets conditions have improved, what is less clearly recognised is the potential scale of the consequences of the major shift of economic and political power from mature economies to rapidly growing ones,' said MacKay, in his farewell speech.

'This new economic world order is likely to provide a large selection of companies with remarkable growth opportunities in China and other countries from which individual long term investments can be chosen. These will often be in companies at the early stages of rapid growth, a point from which the greatest returns can sometimes be won,' MacKay observed.

The company has announced an interim dividend of 5.5p, which represents a 3.8% year on year increase after adjustment for last year's VAT recovery.