Perpetual's birthday present

By MELANIE TRINGHAM
Updated: 19:00 EST, 23 September 1999

Investors in Perpetual unit trusts are to receive special bonuses this year as the company marks the 25th anniversary of its first ever unit trust.

Perpetual is offering 2% on all investments as part of its celebrations.

Those likely to benefit are savers with more than £500 invested.

The windfalls follow the astounding performance of its International Growth Fund, set up to allow investors a safe punt on the stock market.

Perpetual claims that its unit trust has been performing at the top of its sector since launch and is currently in the top quartile of the funds performance table.

It says that £1000 invested in 1974 would be worth more than £100,000 while monthly payments of £20 over the same period would have hit £75,000.

Unit trusts work by pooling funds from a number of investors, and spending them on a range of equities.

This means that a plunge in the share price of one company can be offset by a strong performance in another.

However, the returns are still likely to be quite small, compared with the performance of Perpetual's share price. Savers who took a punt on Perpetual shares would have seen a far greater return, but would have had to take the risk as well.