Final Results

Chairman’s Statement

Performance

For a number of years, conditions in global investment markets have caused the contrarian/value investment style to underperform. While all investment styles are cyclical, this period of weak performance by the value investment style has been unduly protracted, in part because of central bank action to maintain interest rates at unprecedentedly low levels. There are now emerging signs that that this period is drawing to a close and I am pleased to report that the latter part or 2016 has begun to see the value investment style, central to Temple Bar’s investment process, returning to favour. In terms of the Temple Bar portfolio this manifested itself in out-performance relative to its benchmark index during the year. The total return on the net assets of Temple Bar in 2016 was 20.4% which compares with a total return of the FTSE All Share Index of 16.8%. In the longer term Temple Bar continues to outperform its benchmark over both five and ten year periods.

By any conventional yardstick 2016 bore witness to some extraordinary outcomes on the political front, significantly shaping the direction of markets.

Dividend

There have been three interim dividend payments during the year each of 8.09p per share and the directors are now recommending a final dividend payment for the year ended 31 December 2016 of 16.18p per share to be paid on 31 March 2017 to those shareholders on the register as at 10 March 2017. The ex-dividend date for this payment is 9 March 2017. If approved this would give an increase in the total dividend payment for the year as a whole of 2% and would be the 33^rd consecutive year in which the Company has raised its annual dividend payment.

Gearing

In recent years the Company’s fixed long term borrowings have largely been offset by a fairly high cash or near cash position on the portfolio while the portfolio manager patiently waited for more interesting investment opportunities to appear. The position was unchanged throughout most of 2016 such that at the year end, gearing (calculated net of cash and related liquid assets, including our investment in a UK short dated gilt) was 2.4%

Share Capital Management

Shareholders may recall that discounts in the UK Equity Income sector generally widened during the course of 2015. This trend was continued into 2016 as discounts in the sector increased further. Temple Bar was not immune to this process; at the year end its discount stood at 5.8%. I reiterate my observation from last year that the Board is prepared to undertake share buy backs if the discount widens both in absolute terms and relative to the Company’s peer group. While no share repurchase took place during the year, the Board therefore recommends that the existing authorities to issue new ordinary shares and to repurchase shares in the market for cancellation or to hold in Treasury be continued. Accordingly it is seeking approval from shareholders to renew the share issue and repurchase authorities at the forthcoming annual general meeting.

The Board

The Board remained unchanged throughout the year but in January 2017 Nick Lyons was appointed as an additional director. I am delighted to welcome Nick to the Board and I am confident that with his wealth of experience, particularly in the financial sector, he will make a valuable contribution to the Company in the coming years.

Every year the Board undertakes a thorough evaluation of each director, including myself as Chairman. In line with best practice in this regard, all directors are subject to annual re-election by shareholders.

Savings Scheme

Towards the end of the year, having received notice from the Administrator that it did not wish to continue in that role, the Board took the difficult decision that the most sensible course of action was to close the Savings Scheme, almost 30 years after it was first established. It was clear that the ever-increasing amount of regulation involved with the management and administration of schemes of this nature meant that finding a cost effective alternative service provider was not possible. It was therefore decided to offer existing investors in the Scheme the option, amongst others, of transferring their investment in Temple Bar to a share dealing platform with similar characteristics managed by Equiniti, the outgoing Administrator.

Annual General Meeting

The AGM this year will be held at 2 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7QP on Monday 27 March 2017 at 11am. Please note this is a change in the address of the meeting from that of the past few years. In addition to the formal business of the meeting the portfolio manager will, as usual, make a presentation reviewing the past year and commenting on the outlook. He will also be available to answer questions alongside the directors. Shareholders who are unable to attend are encouraged to use their proxy votes.

Outlook

The dramatic political events of 2016, together with their unpredictable impact on investment markets, indicate that any form of forecasting is fraught with risk. At the very least it is clear that a combination of Brexit and a change in the US Administration is likely to cause continuing uncertainties, potentially leading to a slowdown in economic activity in the UK. The portfolio manager will continue to seek to invest in companies that are undervalued by the market and where the potential for improvement exists irrespective of shorter term uncertainties.

John Reeve
Chairman
17 February 2017

Twenty Largest Investments
as at 31 December 2016

Company	Industry	Place of listing	Valuation £’m	% of portfolio
HSBC Holdings	Financials	UK	75.133	7.72
UK Treasury 1.00% 2017	Fixed Interest	UK	68.356	7.02
GlaxoSmithKline	Health Care	UK	65.428	6.72
Royal Dutch Shell	Oil & Gas	UK	59.191	6.08
BP	Oil & Gas	UK	51.272	5.27
Grafton Group	Industrials	UK	41.333	4.25
Barclays	Financials	UK	38.402	3.95
Lloyds Banking Group	Financials	UK	34.772	3.57
WM Morrison Supermarkets	Consumer Services	UK	28.454	2.92
SIG	Industrials	UK	28.131	2.89
Royal Bank of Scotland	Financials	UK	27.682	2.84
Tesco	Consumer Services	UK	24.892	2.56
Marks & Spencer	Consumer Services	UK	24.565	2.52
CitiGroup	Financials	USA	23.202	2.38
Centrica	Utilities	UK	20.769	2.13
Travis Perkins	Industrials	UK	19.476	2.00
BT Group	Telecommunications	UK	19.365	1.99
Drax	Utilities	UK	18.843	1.94
Best Buy	Consumer Services	USA	18.540	1.91
British American Tobacco	Consumer Goods	UK	18.383	1.89
			706.189	72.55

Statement of Comprehensive Income
For the year ended 31 December 2016

		2016			2015
		Revenue	Capital	Total	Revenue	Capital	Total
		£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Investment income		34,069	-	34,069	31,243	-	31,243
Other operating income		5	-	5	10	-	10
		34,074		34,074	31,253		31,253
Profit/(losses) on investments
Profit/(losses) on investments held at fair value through profit or loss		-	128,792	128,792	-	(31,615)	(31,615)
Total income		34,074	128,792	162,866	31,253	(31,615)	(362)
Expenses
Management fees		(1,380)	(1,990)	(3,370)	(1,374)	(1,980)	(3,354)
Other expenses		(633)	(1,039)	(1,672)	(581)	(1,282)	(1,863)
Profit/(loss) before finance costs and tax		32,061	125,763	157,824	29,298	(34,877)	(5,579)
Finance costs		(2,645)	(4,012)	(6,657)	(2,635)	(4,000)	(6,635)
Profit/(loss) before tax		29,416	121,751	151,167	26,663	(38,877)	(12,214)
Tax		(163)	-	(163)	-	-	-
Profit/(loss) for the year		29,253	121,751	151,004	26,663	(38,877)	(12,214)
Earnings per share (basic & diluted)		43.74p	182.06p	225.80p	39.87p	(58.14p)	(18.27p)

The total column of this statement represents the Statement of Comprehensive Income prepared in accordance with IFRS.  The supplementary revenue return and capital return columns are both prepared under guidance issued by the Association of Investment Companies.  All items in the above statement derive from continuing operations. No operations were acquired or discontinued during the year.

The Company does not have any income or expense that is not included in net profit for the year.  Accordingly, the net profit for the year is also the Total Comprehensive Income for the Year, as defined in IAS1 (revised).

Statement of Changes in Equity
for the year ended 31 December 2016

	Ordinary	Share
	share	premium	Capital	Retained	Total
	capital	account	reserves	earnings	equity
	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Balance at 1 January 2015	16,719	96,040	652,304	34,381	799,444
Unclaimed dividends	-	-	-	35	35
(Loss)/Profit for the year	-	-	(38,877)	26,663	(12,214)
Dividends paid to equity shareholders	-	-	-	(31,510)	(31,510)
Balance at 31 December 2015	16,719	96,040	613,427	29,569	755,755
Unclaimed dividends	-	-	-	24	24
Profit for the year	-	-	121,751	29,253	151,004
Dividends paid to equity shareholders	-	-	-	(26,843)	(26,843)
Balance at 31 December 2016	16,719	96,040	735,178	32,003	879,940

Statement of Financial Position
as at 31 December 2016

	31 December 2016		31 December 2015
	£’000	£’000	£’000	£’000
Non-current assets Investments held at fair value through profit or loss		973,353		855,625
Current assets
Receivables	4,266		2,722
Cash and cash equivalents	17,340		12,262
		21,606		14,984
Total assets		994,959		870,609
Current liabilities
Payables		(1,169)		(1,074)
Interest bearing borrowings		(25,000)		-
Total assets less current liabilities		968,790		869,535
Non-current liabilities
Interest bearing borrowings		(88,850)		(113,780)
Net assets		879,940		755,755
Equity attributable to equity holders
Ordinary share capital	16,719		16,719
Share premium	96,040		96,040
Capital reserves	735,178		613,427
Retained earnings	32,003		29,569
		879,940		755,755
Total equity		879,940		755,755
Net asset value per share		1,315.84p		1,130.14p

Statement of Cash Flows
for the year ended 31 December 2016

	2016 £’000              £’000		2015 £’000                 £’000
Cash flows from operating activities
Profit/(Loss) before tax		151,167		(12,214)
Adjustments for:
(Gains)/losses on investments	(128,792)		31,615
Financing costs	6,657		6,635
Purchases of investments¹	(335,164)		(360,358)
Sales of investments¹	346,228		346,899
Dividend income	(32,841)		(29,919)
Interest income	(1,233)		(1,334)
Dividend received	32,078		30,662
Interest received	1,683		1,344
Decrease in receivables	(1,231)		(219)
Increase in payables	95		10
Overseas withholding tax suffered	(163)		-
		(112,683)		25,335
Net cash flows from operating activities before and after income tax		38,484		13,121
Cash flows from financing activities
Issue costs relating to 4.05% Private Placement Loan Unclaimed dividends Interest paid on borrowings		- 24 (6,587)		(24) 35 (6,585)
Equity dividends paid		(26,843)		(31,510)
Net cash used in financing activities		(33,406)		38,084
Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents		5,078		(24,963)
Cash and cash equivalents at the start of the year		12,262		37,225
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year		17,340		12,262

¹    Purchases and sales of investments are considered to be operating activities of the Company, given its purpose, rather than investing activities.

Notes

i)          The figures set out above are prepared on the same basis as set out in the previous year’s annual accounts and are derived from the audited accounts of Temple Bar Investment Trust Plc for the years ended 31 December 2015 and 31 December 2016.  The 2016 accounts will be sent to shareholders shortly.

ii)         The financial information contained in this announcement does not constitute full accounts within the meaning of Section 434 of the Companies Act 2006.  The 2016 accounts, on which the report of the auditors is unqualified, will be filed with the Registrar of Companies in due course.  The audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015 on which the report of the auditors was unqualified and did not contain a statement under Section 498 of the Companies Act 2006, have been filed with the Registrar of Companies.

16 February 2017

Contact:  Alastair Mundy
                Telephone [phone]
                Investec Fund Managers Limited