Interim Report and Financial Statements

Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Mkts Tst.

14 December 2023

 

14 December 2023

Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust plc

(the 'Company')

Interim Report and Financial Statements

For the period from incorporation to 30 September 2023

Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust plc, the global emerging markets equity investment trust, is pleased to report the Company's Interim Report for the period from incorporation on 15 March 2023 to 30 September 2023.

Highlights for the period:

·    Successful IPO on 3 May 2023, the first and only premium-listed main market investment trust IPO since 2021 and the first equity-focused investment trust to launch since 2018.

·    Net Asset Value ('NAV') total return of 2.60% over the period, outperforming the Company's benchmark (MSCI Emerging Markets Net Return Sterling) by 1.15%.

·    Stock selection, especially in small caps was a key driver of outperformance and key contributors during the period included:

o  Senco Gold, the leading jewelry retailer in Eastern India, contributed +106 bps to NAV performance alone

o  Gokaldas Exports, one of India's leading garment exporters, contributed +55 bps to NAV

o  DBS Group Holdings, the largest bank in Singapore, contributed +25 bps to NAV

o  Disco Corporation, a leading capital equipment manufacturer for the semiconductor industry, contributed +23 bps to NAV

o  Dodla Dairy, a leading dairy company in South India, contributed +21 bps to NAV

·    Key detractors for the period included:

o  CIE Financière Richemont SA, the world's third largest luxury group, contributed -43 bps to NAV during the period

o  AIA Group, a Hong Kong listed insurer with a presence in multiple emerging markets contributed -31 bps to NAV

o  LVMH, the world leader in luxury goods with substantial revenues from emerging markets, contributed -29 bps to NAV

o  Hermes International, also among the leading luxury groups globally, contributed -28 bps to NAV

o  Budweiser Brewing Co., amongst the largest beer companies in Asia, contributed -24 bps to NAV.

·    Strong share price trading throughout the period, with the Company's shares trading at an average 2.16% premium to NAV

Post period end highlights:

·    Strong outperformance continues with October 2023 and November 2023 delivering a further 0.62% and 0.32% of outperformance vs the Company's benchmark respectively.

·    Six further tranches of share issuance have been conducted totalling 1,663,530 new Ordinary Shares, representing 5.4% of the shares issued at IPO

Martin Shenfield, Chair of the Company, commented: "We are delighted to present our initial Interim Report covering the period to 30 September 2023 which included the Company's successful listing on the London Stock Exchange, a landmark IPO for the sector considering the significant drought of new listings in recent years.

"We came to market with the strong conviction that White Oak's unique OpcoFinco™ methodology to identify attractively valued stocks with positive catalysts, complemented by its proprietary ABLEx^TM ESG screening filter would deliver outperformance against the Company's benchmark index. While the Company's track record remains short, we are encouraged by the positive start to confirming the effectiveness of this investment approach. The period from inception to 30 September 2023 delivered a 1.15% outperformance in total, with the months of October and November post period end delivering a further 0.62% and 0.32% of outperformance respectively.

"The Board, Investment Manager and Ellora Partners are committed to and confident of growing the Company over time, such that secondary market liquidity improves, the Company's Ongoing Charges Ratio falls, and the Company becomes more attractive to a wider range of investors. It is encouraging that the Company has begun issuing new shares to the market and we look forward to growing the Company's NAV in the future.

"We retain the conviction outlined at the Company's IPO that the investment case for Emerging Markets remains attractive and that the Company's bottom-up investment strategy provides a highly differentiated approach to accessing this key investment theme with the objective of generating outperformance over the long term."

The interim report for the period from incorporation on 15 March 2023 to 30 September 2023 is available on the Company's website at https://awemtrust.com/reports-account/ and also on the FCA's National Storage Mechanism https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism. Further, the interim report is linked in this announcement http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/7155W_1-2023-12-13.pdf.

For further information:

Company Secretary

[e-mail]	[phone]

WhiteOak Capital Partners Pte Ltd.

Prashant Khemka	Via Buchanan
Fadrique Balmaseda
Ben Hayward

Ellora Partners

Mark Thompson	[phone]
Eddie Nissen	[phone]
Oliver Kenyon	[phone]

Buchanan

Henry Harrison-Topham	[phone]
Henry Wilson	[e-mail]
George Beale

About Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust plc

Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust plc (AWEMT) is a UK investment trust seeking to achieve long-term capital appreciation primarily through investing in a multi-cap portfolio of equities that provide exposure to global emerging markets. AWEMT is advised by White Oak Capital Partners Pte. Ltd, founded by Prashant Khemka with leading Emerging Markets investment experience. White Oak Capital Group has delivered an exceptional track record for its other strategies, and has £5.2 billion in assets under management or advisory. White Oak Capital Group pursues a disciplined research process underpinned by its proprietary frameworks OpcoFinco™ for valuation and ABLEx^TM for ESG research. While Emerging Markets remain under-researched and inefficient, AWEMT leverages White Oak's investment approach to capture the higher alpha potential in these markets. There is no fixed management fee, instead the Investment Manager is remunerated solely as a function of outperformance over the benchmark and hence is directly aligned with shareholders' interests.

The Company's LEI is 254900Z4X5Y7NTODRI75.

 

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