Portfolio Update

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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