Enhanced Monthly Announcement including holding...
BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc
All information is at 30 November 2014 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
One Three One Three Five
Month Months Year Years Years
Net asset value -1.0% -22.9% -19.9% -45.2% -33.9%
Share price -0.3% -26.3% -19.5% -38.2% -25.3%
Euromoney Global Mining Index -0.5% -15.1% -8.0% -36.5% -30.6%
(Total return)
Sources: BlackRock, Euromoney Global Mining Index, Datastream
At month end
Net asset value including income*: 378.35p
Net asset value capital only: 365.60p
*Includes net revenue of 12.75p
Share price: 348.00p
Discount to NAV**: 8.0%
Total assets: £776.5m
Net yield***: 6.0%
Net gearing: 12.0%
Ordinary shares in issue: 177,287,242
Ordinary shares held in treasury: 15,724,600
Ongoing charges****: 1.4%
** Discount to NAV including income.
*** Based on final dividend of 14.00p per share in respect of the year ended 31
December 2013 and interim dividend of 7.00p per share in respect of the year
ending 31 December 2014.
**** Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses,
excluding finance costs for the year ended 31 December 2013.
Sector % Total Country Analysis % Total
Assets Assets
Diversified 39.3 Global 52.6
Base Metals 25.8 Latin America 12.0
Gold 10.8 Other Africa 7.9
Silver & Diamonds 7.6 Australasia 7.0
Industrial Minerals 5.2 Canada 4.7
Other 4.0 South Africa 4.3
Energy Minerals 2.8 Emerging Europe 3.8
Aluminium 0.7 China 2.8
Platinum 0.4 USA 1.4
Zinc 0.2 Indonesia 0.3
Net current assets 3.2 Net current assets 3.2
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100.0 100.0
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Ten Largest Investments % Total
Assets
Company
Rio Tinto 9.6
First Quantum Minerals 8.9
BHP Billiton 8.5
GlencoreXstrata 8.3
Freeport-McMoRan 5.5
Lundin Mining 4.1
MMC Norilsk Nickel 3.7
Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde 3.3
Vale 3.2
China Shenhua Energy 2.8
Commenting on the markets and the portfolio, Evy Hambro and Catherine Raw,
representing the Investment Manager noted:
Performance
Soft Chinese economic data weighed on the sector during the month. Money supply
and credit growth in October fell short of expectations, as did the HSBC flash
PMI which fell to 50.0 from 50.4 for the previous month. The recent lacklustre
data from the world's second largest economy prompted a policy response: the
People's Bank of China cut their deposit rate by 40bps to 5.6%. It was not
enough, however, to push the sector into positive territory for the month.
Mining commodities also had a challenging month. Copper, zinc and aluminium
declined by -5.2%, -4.4% and -1.3% respectively. Nickel was the bright spot
among the base metals, appreciating 3.2%. Iron ore continued to be the laggard,
declining -11% to a fraction below $70/tonne (commodities price source: Thomson
Reuters Datastream).
The medium term outlook for copper attracted some positive attention, however,
with the announcement from BHP Billiton (8.5% of total assets) that they are
expecting significant ore grade decline at their Escondida asset in the coming
years. Escondida is the world's largest copper mine and is expected to produce
~880kt of copper concentrate in 2014. Following the announcement, the market is
adjusting its expectations for 2015 and 2016 production meaningfully lower.
Rio Tinto (9.6% of total assets) held their Capital Markets Day and echoed the
commitments to increasing shareholder returns that BHP Billiton made at their
equivalent in October. Rio will be cutting capex further (below $8.5bn from
$9bn estimated) and has deferred a $1bn investment in an iron ore project,
paving the way for higher cash returns.
Norilsk Nickel, (3.7% of total assets), confirmed the payment of their interim
special dividend. This equates to a distribution of approximately $2.78bn
based on the Rouble exchange rate as of 31 October 2014. This unexpected
distribution was welcomed by the market.
Banro Corporation announced on 4 November 2014 that they had secured $41m of
financing through the forward sale of 40,500 ounces to Gold Holding Ltd.
Subsequent uncertainty over the timing of the closure of this transaction,
coupled with a balance sheet update provided in their Q3 results released on 11
November, meant as at the end November 2014 the Company held the Banro
gold-linked preference shares at a 30% discount to the implied gold price used
in the valuation of these preference shares.
Post month end, the Board has noted the lack of recent trading activity and
ongoing financing uncertainty in Banro Corp 10% Note (March 2017), in which the
Company is invested. The Board has concluded, based on a recommendation from
BlackRock's pricing committee, that it is appropriate to value the Company's
investment in the Banro Corp 10% Note at a 25% discount to its last traded
price (on 21 November 2014). This gives a valuation for the Company's
investment in the Banro Corp 10% Note of £6.45m (previous valuation £9.09m), an
impact to the NAV of approximately 1.49 pence. As at 10 December 2014, the
total exposure to Banro Corporation sits at 2.88% of the NAV, of which the
corporate bond represents 1.03% and the gold-linked preference share represents
1.85% of total assets.
As referred to above, iron ore prices continued to decline over the month which
negatively impacted the Company's exposure to pure iron ore producers. African
Minerals (0.1% of total assets via African Mineral's corporate bond) announced
that it was in dispute with its partner, Shandong Iron and Steel Group,
regarding the release of previously agreed funding. African Minerals' shares
were suspended on 20th November owing to this financing uncertainty and on 1st
December the company announced that they had put the Tonkolili mine on care and
maintenance to preserve cash.
Strategy/Outlook
December to date has continued to be a challenging market environment for the
mining sector, weighed down by further weakness in metals prices.
The mining sector has significantly lagged the general equity market in recent
years. However, a number of the downside risks for this sector have reduced
(albeit not disappeared). The industry has made good progress in refocusing its
strategy: operating costs have been aggressively targeted and investment in
projects reassessed.
Recent commodity price moves are likely to abate some of the expected
improvement in free cash flow within the sector and prompt earnings downgrades
in the near term. However, many commodities are trading close to or below their
marginal cost of production, implying that price downside should be limited in
the absence of a collapse in demand.
All data in USD terms unless otherwise stated.
11 December 2014
ENDS
Latest information is available by typing www.brwmplc.co.uk on the internet,
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terminal). Neither the contents of the Manager's website nor the contents of
any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager's website (or any other
website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.