Monthly Investor Report

Geiger Counter Ltd

24 November 2023

 

 

Geiger Counter Limited Plc 

Monthly Investor Report - November 

The full monthly factsheet is now available on the Company's website and a summary can be found below. 

NCIM - Geiger Counter Ltd - Fund Page for Geiger Counter Ltd

Enquiries: 

For the Investment Manager 

CQS (UK) LLP 

Craig Cleland 

0207 201 5368 

For the Company Secretary and Administrator 

BNP Paribas S.A., Jersey Branch 

Dean Plowman/Ann-Marie Pereira 

01534 813 967/ 01534 709198 

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Fund Description 

The objective of the Geiger Counter Fund is to provide investors with the potential for capital growth through investment primarily in the securities of companies involved in the exploration, development and production of energy, predominantly within the uranium industry. Up to 30% of the value of the Company's investment portfolio may be invested in other resource-related companies from outside the energy sec 

Portfolio Managers 

Keith Watson and Robert Crayfourd 

Key Advantages for the Investor 

·      Access to mining assets in the uranium sector

·      May benefit from embedded subscription share

·      Low correlation to major asset classes

Key Fund Facts¹ 

Total Gross Assets	£99.1m
Reference Currency	GBP
Ordinary Shares:
Net Asset Value	64.84p
Mid-Market Price	48.25p
Net gearing4	16.09%
Discount	(25.59%)

Ordinary Share and NAV Performance² 

	One Month	Three Months	One Year	Three Years	Five Years
	(%)	(%)	(%)	(%)	(%)
NAV	0.96	42.88	24.48	317.51	219.72
Share Price	-7.21	24.52	-7.21	194.21	135.37

Commentary³ 

After the previous month's price jump, the spot U3O8 price made a modest further gain in

October, closing the month up 1.9% at $74.5/lb. While the uranium market price continued to

rise, the Fund NAV slipped marginally, consolidating 1% in October versus a sterling decline of 2.4% registered by the Solactive Uranium Pure Play Index. The funds NAV discount widened slightly over the month, close to the highest in 7 years, despite the strong performance and positive sector fundamentals. The fund bought back shares which was accretive to the NAV per share.

Strong performance contributions were made by US in-situ project developers, UEC and Ur-Energy which rose 22% and 14% respectively in sterling terms. The pull-back by Paladin and Iso Energy largely offset these gains with both stocks retracing 15% in sterling terms, giving back nearly half their prior month increases. Explorer Iso Energy's decline followed an all-share acquisition of Uranium Consolidated, which owns a portfolio of development assets, at the end of September and the subsequent equity issue to raise proceeds to pursue a larger exploration programme on its expanded portfolio. The Fund participated in the placing by Iso Energy, alongside the group's other largest shareholders NexGen, Energy Fuels and Mega Uranium.

Cameco's Q3 results showed that the group achieved a sales price of US$52.57/lb during the period, versus spot prices which remained above $55/lb. Following the rise in spot uranium prices, which exceeded US$70/lb at the end of the quarter, the group updated its expectations for its full year realised price of C$63.50/lb, or approximately US$47/lb when translated using the exchange rate at end-September. This is indicative of the drag effect of prior forward sales contract terms on its uranium mining revenues. Cameco's guidance for full year uranium deliveries was maintained at between 31-33Mlbs U3O8, of which around 29Mlbs per annum is already contracted for the five years.

Elsewhere, French state-owned uranium fuel supplier Orano announced plans to expand

capacity at its Tricastin processing facility. An investment of $1.8bn is being made to increase capacity at the Georges Besse II enrichment plant by more than 30% in recognition of western government's desire to reduce the risk of fuel disruption given Russia's dominant global position in this area. In addition, the European Council reached a tentative agreement to reform an EU electricity price mechanism. This may remove the requirement for France's state-owned utility EDF to sell over a third of its nuclear energy production at below market prices, which should now increase the company's motivation to expedite repairs and reconnect the remaining offline reactors to the grid.

	Gross Leverage (%)	Commitment Leverage (%)
Geiger Counter Ltd	116	116

CQS (UK) LLP

4th Floor, One Strand, London WC2N 5HR, United Kingdom

T: [phone] | F: [phone]

CQS (US), LLC

152 West 57th Street, 40th Floor, New York, NY 10019, US

T: [phone] | F: [phone]

CQS (Hong Kong) Limited

3305 AIA Tower, 183 Electric Road, North Point, Hong Kong, China

T: [phone] | F: [phone]

Tavistock Communications

18 St. Swithin's Lane, London EC4N 8AD

T: [phone] | [e-mail]

Sources: 1R&H Fund Services (Jersey) Limited, as at the last business day of the month indicated at the top of this report. 2R&H Fund Services Limited/DataStream, as at the last business day of the month indicated at the top of this report, total return performance net of fees and expenses based on bid prices. These include historic returns and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The value of investments can go down as well as up. Please read the important legal notice at the end of this document. 3Market data sourced from Bloomberg unless otherwise stated. The Fund may since have exited some or all of the positions detailed in the commentary.

 

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