THE £8 billion Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust yesterday flagged its patient, long-term approach in “a frantic world, obsessed with predicting the next ‘thing’ which might go wrong”, as it posted a benchmark-beating performance.

The trust, managed by James Anderson and Tom Slater of Edinburgh investment partnership Baillie Gifford, achieved a total return on net asset value of 14.6 per cent for the year to March 31. This was ahead of a 10.7% total return on its benchmark, the FTSE All-World Index in sterling terms.

Online retailer Amazon, Scottish Mortgage’s biggest holding at March 31, delivered a 32.4% return. The Amazon stake accounted for 9.6% of the trust’s £8.1bn of total assets at March 31. Biotechnology equipment company Illumina, Scottish Mortgage’s second-biggest holding, delivered a 41.5% return.

Fiona McBain, who chairs the trust, said: “Today, Scottish Mortgage has perhaps become best known for its holdings in the tech giants but investors are cautioned that defining the portfolio in such terms gives too narrow a perspective on this company’s future prospects.

“The portfolio not only includes retail, advertising and media businesses but also a wide variety of companies in healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, financial services, food production and consumption.”

On Brexit, Ms McBain observed “there are very few UK companies in the portfolio, five holdings representing around 3% of assets, most of which are global rather than purely domestically focused businesses”.

The trust proposed a final dividend of 1.74p a share, making a total of 3.13p for the financial year.