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Lord Rothschild warns of unchartered waters amidst ‘greatest monetary experiment’

RIT Capital Partners, the investment trust helmed by Lord Rothschild, has announced record figures for the first six months of the year as the value of assets on its books reached on all-time high.

The London-based firm, which was founded in 1961 by the English branch of the Rothschild banking family, said its total net assets now stood at a dizzying £2.5bn for the period up to 30 June in announcement to the London Stock Exchange this morning.

This represents a net asset growth of £87.9m year-on-year, and £567m growth in the last three years alone for the trust which deals in quoted securities and special situations.

It also said that, due to a weakening of the pound following Brexit, the trust had lessened its exposure to Sterling and was adopting a more balanced view towards the US Dollar.

In a statement, Lord Rothschild, who is Chairman at RIT Capital Partners, described the current experiment with record-low interest rates and cocktail of economic pressures as embarking on ‘uncharted waters’ and that the firm would be focused on the ‘preservation of capital’ in the coming months.

He commented: “The six months under review have seen central bankers continuing what is surely the greatest experiment in monetary policy in the history of the world.

“We are therefore in uncharted waters and it is impossible to predict the unintended consequences of very low interest rates, with some 30% of global government debt at negative yields, combined with quantitative easing on a massive scale.”

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