THE THROGMORTON TRUST PLC
All information is at 30 April 2011 and unaudited.
Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income basis
One Three One Three
Month Months Year Years
Net asset value# 4.1% 4.8% 50.0% 73.3%
Net asset value^ 4.1% 4.8% 50.0% 65.5%
Net asset value^^ 3.6% 5.0% 42.8% 54.0%
Share price 1.2% 3.5% 40.1% 58.5%
Subscription share price 2.7% 6.2% 329.5% n/a
HGSC plus AIM (ex Inv Cos) 3.7% 3.7% 22.5% 23.6%
# 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: 251.03p
Net asset value capital only (diluted for
subscription shares): 233.32p
Net asset value incl. income: 251.94p
Net asset value incl. income (diluted for
subscription shares): 234.08p
Share price: 194.75p
Discount to capital only NAV (diluted for
subscription shares): 16.5%
Subscription share price: 47.25p
Net yield: 1.5% *
Total assets: £163.7m **
Gearing: 6.4%
Ordinary shares in issue: 60,797,273 ***
Subscription shares in issue: 12,333,053
*Calculated using prior year interim and final dividends paid.
**Includes current year revenue.
***Excluding 7,400,000 shares held in treasury.
Ten Largest Sector
Weightings % of Total Assets
Software & Computer Services 9.4
Support Services 9.3
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 8.8
Mining 8.2
Financial Services 7.4
Oil & Gas Producers 7.0
Media 5.9
Industrial Engineering 5.4
Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology 4.4
General Retailers 4.1
----
Total 69.9
====
Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order)~
Company
Abcam
Aveva Group
City of London Investment Group
Domino Printing Sciences
Fidessa
Hargreaves Services
Hutchison China Meditech
ITE
Oxford Instruments
Spirax-Sarco Engineering
Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis and Richard Plackett, representing the
Investment Manager noted:
During April the Company's NAV per share rose by 4.1% on a cum income basis,
slightly ahead of the benchmark index which rose by 3.7% on a total return
basis. The FTSE 100 Index rose by 2.7%.
The largest contributor to relative outperformance in the long only portfolio
during the month was Burst Media, which announced it was being acquired by
Blinkx at a substantial premium. Blinkx was our second best performer; it
announced that revenues for its year to 31 March 2011 were up 90% on the
previous year. Given its high gross margins we expect Blinkx to be increasingly
profitable and cash generative.
The only significant negative contributor to the long only portfolio relative
performance during the month was our holding in Alterian which had a profit
warning. It is still a fairly early stage software company and license fees can
be lumpy and are often signed close to the year end. Alterian failed to sign
the level of licences the market had expected, and the Chief Executive
resigned. Over the month the shares fell 38%. Although not a large holding this
reduced relative performance by 0.30%.
The CFD portfolio performed well overall, with significant gains on the long
only positions exceeding losses on short positions.
We did make a few changes to the long only portfolio during the month. We are
significantly overweight engineering and electronics companies and decided to
sell our holding in Cookson. Cookson is no longer in our benchmark and we
prefer holdings such as Spirax-Sarco, Oxford Instruments and Renishaw, which
remain large holdings. We also trimmed a few holdings where we felt valuations
were looking slightly full.
We added several new holdings: International Personal Finance, Close Brothers
and Dunelm. International Personal Finance supplies home credit in developing
markets. It operates in Central Europe and Mexico and has 2.2 million
customers, typically borrowing small sums for periods of up to a year. Q1 2011
results were well received, helped by higher lending and lower impairments. We
see this as an interesting growth business. Close Brothers has three operating
divisions: Banking, Securities, and Asset Management. The banking business is
trading well, helped by competition being less active. Winterflood Securities
is the main part of the securities trading division. It too is gaining market
share. Asset Management has traded less well but management are committed to
delivering much improved performance. Overall, the shares are sensibly valued,
and backed up by a 5% yield. Dunelm supplies soft furnishings and homewares
though its 97 stores across the UK. It adopts a distinct value approach and has
a large range of products to choose from, something to appeal to all budgets.
Its growth has been financed entirely through its own cash flows since the
1970s. We have held good meetings with the management of each of these
companies in the last few months.
17 May 2011
ENDS
Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/its on the
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website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.
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