THE THROGMORTON TRUST PLC
All information is at 31 May 2009 and unaudited.
Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income basis
One Three One Three
Month Months Year Years
Net asset value# 5.5% 23.2% -27.4% -31.7%
Net asset value* 5.5% 23.5% -30.9% -34.9%
Share price 12.0% 40.3% -27.1% -30.2%
HGSC plus AIM (ex Inv Cos) 4.1% 30.6% -29.8% -27.7%
# NAV performance prior to costs of repaying the debentures early
* NAV performance after costs of repaying the debentures early
Sources: BlackRock and Datastream
At month end
Net asset value Capital only: 111.85p
Net asset value incl Income: 114.82p
Share price: 98.00p
Discount to Capital only NAV: 12.4%
Net yield: 2.5%
Total assets: £94.6m *
Gearing: Nil
Ordinary shares in continuing pool: 82,351,197 **
* Includes current year revenue.
** Excluding treasury shares.
Ten Largest Sector
Weightings % of Total Assets
Software & Computer Services 12.9
Financial Services 11.3
Support Services 8.9
Oil & Gas Producers 8.0
Mining 5.9
Aerospace & Defence 5.7
Industrial Engineering 4.5
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 4.1
Travel & Leisure 3.7
Media 3.6
----
Total 68.4
====
Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order)
Company
Aveva
Brewin Dolphin Holdings
Chemring Group
Dechra Pharmaceuticals
Domino Prining Sciences
Emerald Energy
Fidessa
Pace
Rathbone Brothers
Rensburg Sheppards
Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis and Richard Plackett, representing the
Investment Manager noted:
During May the NAV increased by 5.5%, whilst the benchmark increased by 4.1%.
The main contributors to relative performance were holdings in Frontier Mining,
Aveva and Endace. Frontier Mining shares have bounced, mainly because a
refinancing deal was agreed, although many junior miners have been strong.
Aveva produced good full year results. Whilst earnings expectations for the
current year have been sharply reduced, management were confident that they can
further gain market share during the recession, and come out of it stronger. We
had a good meeting with Endace management following the announcement of their
results; management are confident about prospects for the year ahead.
Relative performance was impacted by poor contributions from Domino Printing
Sciences and London Capital. Domino Printing shares were weak after a strong
April; we know trading conditions are difficult, however highly rated
management have cut costs aggressively. London Capital indicated in April that
trading had been quieter than expected, and some extra costs had been incurred
pending finalisation of testing of their new trading software. They
subsequently disclosed that following the departure of the previous Finance
Director, certain relatively minor accounting changes were being made to prior
year accounts. We visited the company and came away believing these were
one-off items. However, visibility is naturally very limited in a business such
as London Capital, and the recent reduction in market volatility has impacted
profits. The balance sheet is strong, the record is good, and our inclination
is to retain the holding.
Holdings in QinetiQ, Playtech, PV Crystalox Solar and Lancashire Holdings were
sold. We wanted to reduce our large overweight exposure to the aerospace and
defence sector; QinetiQ shares have been out of favour and we prefer other
holdings. Playtech results showed slower organic growth than we had expected.
PV Crystalox warned demand had slowed, and prices were under pressure. We
wanted to reduce exposure to the non-life assurers and decided to sell the
Lancashire holding.
We took part in several placings, the largest of which was in housebuilder
Taylor Wimpey, a heavily discounted issue to reduce debt. This seemed like a
reasonable way to increase sector exposure, and in a company trading at a large
discount to book value.
Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/its on the
internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV
terminal).
29 June 2009
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