Strong corporate earnings drove a sharp rally in global markets in August, supported by a less volatile geopolitical backdrop. Rising bond yields tempered sentiment, while policy responses weakened the US dollar and renewed interest in real assets. Against this backdrop, our globally diversified portfolio delivered a strong positive return in August, with all three investment pillars – Quoted Equities, Private Investments and Uncorrelated Strategies – contributing. We believe the portfolio is well positioned to benefit from a continued broadening of the public equity rally, strength in real assets and any further opening of private markets, while remaining mindful of geopolitical and economic risks. - Quoted Equities contributed positively to performance, led by a meaningful contribution from SpaceX and our commodity related exposures, with a marginal offset from our small-cap position. We continue to expect some near-term volatility in SpaceX as our staggered lock-up unwinds through the end of the year. - Private Investments generated meaningful returns as we received almost all remaining Q2 fund valuations. As expected, these reflected positive developments in private markets during the quarter, with returns benefitting from exposure to AI, space and defence, alongside a number of positions marked higher following new financing rounds. Our private fund valuations are typically received two to three months after each quarter end. The outlook in the direct portfolio remains constructive, with Databricks, one of our top direct positions, completing a financing round at a valuation above our current holding value in the NAV. - Uncorrelated Strategies' positive returns were driven by strong contributions from gold and our soft commodity exposures, as well as our macro managers. - Currency translation was a detractor during the month, driven primarily by the weakening of the US dollar against Sterling. During August we repurchased £4.3m or approximately 167,000 RIT shares.
