THE THROGMORTON TRUST PLC
All information is at 31 October2009 and unaudited.
Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income basis
One Three One Three
Month Months Year Years
Net asset value# 1.4% 19.5% 59.7% -16.0%
Net asset value^ 1.4% 19.5% 59.7% -19.9%
Net asset value^^ 1.4% 19.5% 59.7% -19.9%
Share price -4.7% 12.7% 63.4% -22.1%
Subscription share price -35.7% n/a n/a n/a
HGSC plus AIM (ex Inv Cos) -1.1% 16.0% 50.8% -15.8%
# NAV prior to costs of repaying the debentures early
^ NAV after costs of repaying the debentures early - undiluted
^^ NAV after costs of repaying debentures early - diluted
Sources: BlackRock and Datastream
At month end
Net asset value capital only: 141.02p
Net asset value incl. Income: 144.64p
Share price: 114.50p
Discount to capital only NAV: 18.8%
Subscription share price: 4.50p
Net yield: 3.3%
Total assets: £107.2m *
Gearing: Nil
Ordinary shares in issue: 74,116,108 **
* Includes current year revenue.
** Excluding 7,400,000 shares held in treasury.
During the month 14,822,901 subscription shares were issued.
Ten Largest Sector
Weightings % of Total Assets
Software & Computer Services 11.3
Financial Services 9.7
Mining 7.5
Oil & Gas Producers 7.3
Support Services 7.1
Technology Hardware & Equipment 6.1
Industrial Engineering 5.6
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 4.5
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 4.5
Media 3.8
----
Total 67.4
====
Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order)
Company
Abcam
Aveva Group
BATM Advanced Communications
Brewin Dolphin Holdings
City of London Investment Group
Dechra Pharmaceuticals
Domino Prining Sciences
Fidessa group
Rensburg Sheppards
Rotork
Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis and Richard Plackett, representing the
Investment Manager noted:
October was a good month in relative terms with the NAV increasing by 1.4% on a
cum income basis, whilst the benchmark fell by 1.1%. The FTSE 100 fell by 1.7%.
The main contributors to relative outperformance in the long only portfolio
were our holdings in BATM Advanced Communications and Planet Payment. BATM
shares performed well as analyst coverage increased ahead of interim results.
BATM is well placed to benefit from the rapid increase in telecoms data
traffic, much driven by the increased use of smartphones. It also has an
interesting medical technologies division where sales are developing well.
Planet Payment is an international payment processing company which enables the
rapid and effective processing of credit card transactions on a global basis.
Revenues are growing steadily and the company has recently become EBITDA
positive; further sales growth, which is expected, will have a highly
beneficial impact on profits.
Relative performance in the long only portfolio was impacted by a poor
contribution from our holding in ANT. ANT is a small, illiquid software company
providing software for IPTV. Although still loss making the company has signed
a variety of contracts recently, and management believe these will lead to
profitability being reached before too long. However, with no newsflow since
results in August, and negligible volume, the shares have given up the gains of
the previous weeks.
Relative performance was good overall both in terms of stock selection and
sector allocation. Our large underweight sector position in travel & leisure
proved very beneficial as investors sold pub companies and other domestically
dependent companies.
We sold holdings in Game Group, HMV Group, Dana Petroleum and Heritage Oil. We
remain cautious on the outlook for the UK economy. Game and HMV are
attractively valued retailers facing weak comparable trading periods, but we
expect 2010 trading to be more challenging, and believe investors will look
forward to this rather than react to likely positive year end trading
statements. Dana and Heritage are not our highest conviction oil producers, nor
are their valuations compelling at present.
We bought holdings in Spectris, Headlam and Highland Gold. Spectris is an
international capital goods company which has cut costs aggressively. We think
trading is beginning to stabilise, and expect the company to do well over the
medium term. Headlam dominates the distribution of carpet to the UK independent
retailer sector. It is cautiously run but operationally geared. We suspect
trading is also stabilising and that Headlam should do well as housing
transactions recover. Highland Gold is a gold producer with an erratic historic
record. However, latest results show encouraging trends in production and
decreasing cash costs. New projects are due to come on stream shortly boosting
production further at a time of high gold prices. It also has a very cash rich
balance sheet.
The CFD portfolio had a strong month with a number of the long positions
performing very well; we have closed out some of the short positions, slightly
increasing the net long position of the portfolio.
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).
19 November 2009
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