Annual Financial Report

Miton UK MicroCap Trust plc

11 July 2023

 

Miton UK Microcap Trust plc

ISIN: GB00BWFGQ085

LEI: 21380048Q8UABVMAG916

11 July 2023

2023 Annual Results, Dividend announcement and Notice of Annual General Meeting

Miton UK Microcap Trust plc ("MINI" or the "Trust") announces its annual results for the year ended 30 April 2023 and the publication of its annual report and accounts for the same period, which includes the notice of its 2023 Annual General Meeting.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

	Year to 30 April 2023	Year to 30 April 2022
Total net assets attributable to equity shareholders (£'000)	60,754	99,475
NAV per Ordinary Share*	64.20p	91.05p
Share price (last close)	59.50p	86.50p
Discount to NAV*	(7.32)%	(5.00)%
Investment income	£0.8m	£1.0m
Revenue return per Ordinary Share	0.03p	0.15p
Total return per Ordinary Share*	(28.93)p	(13.77)p
Ongoing charges#*	1.72%	1.41%
Ordinary Shares in issue	94,638,561	109,253,560

*Alternative Performance Measure ("APM"). Details provided in the Glossary of the Annual Report.

#The ongoing charges are calculated in accordance with AIC guidelines.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

The report covers the full year to 30 April 2023, a period which has proved to be very testing for equities, and especially for the smallest UK quoted companies. The UK Bank rate moved from 0.75% in April 2022 to 5.0% in June 2023, a scenario which has seldom proved advantageous to small cap stock prices. In the aftermath of the ill-fated Liz Truss administration's Mini-Budget in September 2022, Sterling fell to a forty year low against the Dollar, hitting $1.07. Global equities had already suffered a significant decline since the unwarranted Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. This adverse trend persisted into the year under review, although stock markets generally staged a modest recovery in the second half of the year to April 2023.

Usually, during unsettled markets the most resilient equities are often equity income or 'value' stocks. Given the large weightings of these stocks in the main UK market, it was amongst the better performing indices globally, both during the period of market weakness up to September 2022, and subsequently. In total return terms the Numis Large Cap Index is up 8.3% (April 2022 to April 2023).

Over the past few years, investment managers have substantially reduced their holdings in UK equities. I was astonished to learn from New Financial, a think tank, that in 1997 53% of British pension funds' total assets were invested in UK stocks: the figure 25 years later is 6%. Looking at it another way, since 2000, the share of the UK stock market owned by UK pensions and insurance companies has fallen from 39% to just 4%. Against these headwinds it is unsurprising that many UK equities continue to languish on low valuations. In your Manager's view, the outperformance of the Numis Large Cap Index over the last two years highlights the scale of UK inflows from overseas investors as they start unwinding their underweight positions in low-beta equities.

In marked contrast to the UK mainstream stocks, whilst the share prices of AIM-listed small and microcaps had already declined severely in the first four months of 2022, they have fallen quite a lot further during the period. It is disappointing that they did not recover during the second half of year.

It appears that the ongoing OEIC redemptions from domestic investors have not yet been offset by inflows from global investors into UK small and microcaps. Over the year to April 2023, the Numis 1000 Index was down 11.2%.

The vast majority of UK microcaps were already standing on unusually low valuations even prior to their share price weakness over this past year. The low average price-to-book of holdings in the portfolio highlights the value to be found in owning the Trust.

Earnings and Dividends

Earnings for the year were 0.03p per share (2022: 0.15p per share) on the revenue account. Earnings on the capital account consisted of a loss of 28.96p per share (2022: a loss of 13.91p per share). Earnings on the revenue account reflect both portfolio changes and microcap companies seeking to retain cash to invest. As far as setting the dividend is concerned, the Directors have always given the Manager maximum flexibility to follow the course that will lead to the best results for shareholders. As Directors, we regard the dividend as a useful by-product of the investment process but not a target in itself. This year, your Board is recommending to maintain the prior year final dividend of 0.15p per ordinary share, subject to approval by shareholders at the AGM; this will be paid on 26 October 2023 to shareholders on the register on 29 September 2023.

Performance

With the dearth of buying interest in UK microcaps over the last two years, marginal sellers have dominated the direction of share prices. In light of current market trends, even microcaps which reported results better than expectations continue to languish in terms of share price appreciation.

The largest holding in the fund, Yu Group, was easily the best contributor over the year, adding 2.5% to returns.

Regrettably, there have been precious few other microcap winners this year. Your Manager invested in a secondary issue by Petro Matad mid-year, a Mongolian oil business with some high impact wells. If it performed strongly, the Manager anticipated not even having to wait for the drilling results, and so it has proved. To date it is the second-best contributor to returns and the Manager has been selling some shares at more than double the placing price.

Meanwhile, small and microcaps that have, even modestly, missed their targets have typically been subject to dramatic weakness in their share prices. For example, the share prices of HeiQ fell 74%, Aferian dropped 73%, and Saietta dived 71% over the year to April 2023, even though all three companies appear to retain strong balance sheets, attractive corporate prospects, and the potential to generate significant cash surpluses albeit after slight delays. They were the second, third and fourth worst detractors during the year. Your Manager retains all three as they continue to have strong balance sheets, and anticipates that they will generate substantial cash surpluses.

Live Company Group was the biggest detractor during the year, given that its share price had risen well during March and April 2022, ahead of a K-POP concert it was organising. Although the Trust took some profits at 6.2p, and modestly supported a fund raising in July at 4p, Live Company has not ended up generating the paybacks that were anticipated. Hence, the Trust has subsequently sold down the holding later in the year at lower prices, at a cost to returns of 1.8%.

In addition, with the ongoing strength of large UK companies, the FTSE Put Option cost the Trust 0.9% over the year to April 2023. Unfortunately, there is no 'over the counter' Put Option which more closely correlates with our microcap universe.

Overall, the Trust's NAV has fallen by 29.3%, from 91.05p at the end of the April 2022 to 64.20p as of 30 April 2023. Generally, the share prices of some small caps further up the market capitalisation range did pick up a little during the second half of the year, but at this stage most microcap share prices remain deeply depressed and almost wholly underappreciated.

Portfolio activity

Your Manager has become more cautious about UK-quoted microcaps operating in economies where there is an increasing risk of them running out of hard currency as the Federal Reserve and other central banks seek to control inflation.

Profits were taken in microcap holdings that had performed strongly to enable reinvestment in others that remain on unusually low valuations. Your Manager continues to avoid stocks that risk running out of cash, as distressed fund raisings by microcaps are not only destructively dilutive, but can suck capital from successful holdings to fund companies with more uncertain prospects.

Numerous portfolio holdings reported resilient trading despite their weak share prices. Some of these were added to using the capital released from sales. When global markets bottomed out during September and October last year, your Manager also reduced the portfolio's cash weighting.

Additionally, opportunities remain to invest in stocks that appear to have disproportionate upside potential. Your Manager is most interested in those companies with prospects that are not closely correlated with others in the portfolio. Improved diversification enhances portfolio returns, especially

when unexpected geopolitical events occur.

Over the year, the largest new portfolio holding was Shield Therapeutics, a lowly valued FDA-approved iron-supplement pill business with rapidly growing sales. Shield's management plans to accelerate the Company's future cash surpluses greatly by sharing the upside with a business that has a much larger sales force. The Trust also invested in two maturing resource stocks: Cleantech Lithium, a company that can bring low-cost lithium-infused brine into production relatively quickly, and Petro Matad, as noted earlier. Both share prices appreciated rapidly after the placings, and the Trust has already taken some profits.

Given the weak valuation comparatives, there were very few microcap IPOs. Only those that are really lowly valued, with prospects that are uncorrelated with the rest of the portfolio, have been considered. SmartTech247, a cybersecurity company that appears to be taking market share rapidly, has performed well since issue, although Lifesafe Holdings, a manufacturer of a universal fire suppressant that actively cools fires, has suffered share price weakness despite exceeding market forecasts since issue.

Finally, the Trust supported a number of secondary placings to fund acquisitions and growth. The most significant this year was Journeo, which provides train and bus information systems, and made an acquisition that it is anticipated will greatly enhance the Company's prospective surplus cash balances.

Prospects

Underlying stock market trends often persist for many years.

Over the decades of globalisation, large cap strategies with the prospect of enhanced capital appreciation outperformed. In your Manager's view, the Nifty Fifty of the 1960s have parallels to today's "FAANG" megacaps (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google). The Nifty Fifty also had a very strong period of outperformance in the early 1970s when inflationary pressures first became an issue. Later in the decade, when central banks made combating inflation their highest priority, market valuations normalised, and later corporate profit margins collapsed, so the Nifty Fifty in the US underperformed badly for many years. If the FAANG megacaps were to mimic this outcome, there would be a degree of institutional urgency to identify asset classes that can generate attractive returns in a genuinely less correlated manner.

Your Manager believes that companies generating decent cash surpluses will become sought after. The returns of corporates generating a stream of good and growing cash surpluses should prove independent of the fluctuations of the market. Given that most institutional investors are heavily weighted in megacaps, we believe their most pressing issue in the future will be to identify different investment pools that can deliver attractive returns and that are less reliant on the appreciation of markets.

In this regard, I remain reassured that the Trust has a greater investment universe and opportunity to add value through stock selection than mainstream funds as the number of companies with a market capitalisation of less than £150m remains greater than those that are larger. Furthermore, the upside potential for microcaps should be greater than that of the largest UK stocks, for as the old Stock Exchange maxim goes: 'Elephants don't gallop!'  After all, the Numis Small Cap Plus AIM Index has underperformed the Numis Large Cap Index by 36.1% over the last two years. It is not just that AIM-listed valuations are starting from much lower levels than those of larger company equivalents, but also that the large UK company valuations themselves are also cheap relative to international comparatives.

In short, your Directors believe that Miton UK MicroCap Trust has the potential to have bursts of strong returns (as it did between March 2000 and May 2021). And when quoted microcaps start at what we consider to be extraordinarily low valuations, combined with such modest institutional allocations, favourable trends such as these can easily be sustained over the coming decade or two.

As I wrote in my last report, the Directors are grateful for your forbearance in holding the Trust's shares over what has been a dismal period and we are hopeful that your patience will be rewarded in the not-too-distant future.

Share Issuance

As the shares did not trade at a sufficient premium to the prevailing Net Asset Value (NAV) during the year under report, there were no opportunities to issue shares. We will be seeking approval at the AGM in September 2023 to renew this useful facility. Issuing shares at a premium to NAV is to the benefit of all shareholders as it dilutes the fixed charges which the company bears.

Share Redemption

Each year your Directors offer the facility for shareholders to redeem their holdings, in part or whole, at or close to the prevailing net asset value. The directors are offering this facility again this year and the timetable is laid out in the full Annual Report and Accounts. Should the redemption be substantial then the Directors may take the decision to form a separate redemption pool and it may take a number of weeks/months to liquidate the pool appropriately. As has previously been reported, the Directors moved the 2023 redemption point from 30 June 2023 to 2 November 2023, to align with the interim report.

Board Refreshment

I am delighted to report that, following the engagement of a full service executive search consultant, Mrs Louise Bonham joined the Board on 15 December 2022. Louise replaces Ms Jan Etherden, who stepped down on the same date. We will miss Jan's wise counsel, her legendary ability to put her finger on any emerging problems and we wish her well. Louise, whose background is mostly in property, is a chartered accountant by training and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. Louise cut her teeth with Deloitte and Deutsche Bank and has held a wide range of senior appointments, including at CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield. Louise will take over from Peter Dicks by the end of 2024 as Chair of the Audit Committee.

Directors' Remuneration

The Directors are entitled to an increase in their fees by the percentage uplift in CPI each Spring, in line with the Directors' Remuneration Policy. The figure which applies to fees from 1 May 2023 is just over 10%. Cognisant of the disappointing performance of the Company's net asset value and share price, the Directors have unanimously agreed not to take any increase in their fees this year.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues

Your Company's Manager follows Premier Miton's responsible investing policy, which is to integrate responsibility for ESG into the investment process. It also actively engages with investee companies in order to deliver improved outcomes for all stakeholders whilst taking an active approach to voting on company resolutions at annual general meetings of investee companies. Premier Miton has been a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment since January 2020, an organisation which encourages and supports its signatories to incorporate ESG factors into investment and ownership decisions. Premier Miton has adopted a banned weapons policy exclusion and utilises third party data to maintain a list of such companies.

Whilst Premier Miton does not exclude any other companies or sectors for ESG reasons, its active investment approach ensures that exposure to so called 'controversial companies' is generally low.

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the company will be held at 11.00 am on Tuesday 26 September 2023 at the offices of Stephenson Harwood, 1 Finsbury Circus, London EC2M 7SH. Your Directors look forward to this opportunity to meet shareholders and especially retail investors, as there are few other opportunities to engage with the latter. Aside from the formal business of the AGM, Gervais Williams and Martin Turner will give a presentation on the Company's prospects and at the end of proceedings we will be offering a sandwich lunch. We hope that a number of shareholders will be able to attend, and would encourage those wishing to do so to register their interest via a link that will be available on the Company website, www.mitonukmicrocaptrust.com, in the preceding six weeks. There you will also find an option to sign up to receive details of future investment trust events organised by Premier Miton.

Ashe Windham

Chairman

10 July 2023

INVESTMENT MANAGER'S REPORT

Which fund managers have day-today responsibility for the make up of the Trust's portfolio?

Since the launch of the Trust in April 2015, the day to day management of the Trust's portfolio has

consistently been carried out by Gervais Williams and Martin Turner.

Gervais Williams

Gervais joined Miton in March 2011 and is now Head of Equities at Premier Miton. He has been an equity fund manager since 1985, including 17 years at Gartmore. He was named Fund Manager of the Year by What Investment? in 2014. Gervais is also a board member of the Quoted Companies Alliance and a member of the AIM Advisory Council.

Martin Turner

Martin joined Miton in May 2011. Martin and Gervais have had a close working relationship since 2004, with complementary expertise that led them to back a series of successful companies. Martin qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Anderson and had senior roles and extensive experience at Merrill Lynch and Collins Stewart.

What were the principal stock contributors and detractors in the portfolio over the year to April

2023?

In general, the Trust's portfolio is invested in stocks that have relatively strong balance sheets, and hence, even if there is a delay in meeting their current targets, they are unlikely to carry the risk of requiring additional risk capital when their share prices are weak. Over the year to April 2023 however, sellers of microcap shares were persistent and tended to outnumber microcap buyers, so the share prices of most microcap stocks fell, even if their prospects remained unchanged. This is the principal reason why the NAV of the Trust fell 29.3% this year.

Given the unfavourable background, when the prospects of portfolio holdings did deteriorate somewhat, their share prices often fell precipitously. For example, the share prices of Saietta, HeiQ and Aferian all fell by between 70% and 75% because they announced certain contracts were delayed in the current year. These holdings have been retained in the portfolio because we believe their very substantial longer term upside potential remains in place. They collectively reduced the Trust's return by 4.1% over the year under review. Interestingly, Accrol which was the most adverse detractor to the Trust's return last year, was retained in the portfolio for the same reasons and became one of the best contributors to the Trust's return this year adding 0.5%.

As is usual even in a year when the Trust's return is strong, there are some stocks where prospects deteriorated, and the upside originally envisaged now appears to be compromised. These stocks have been sold, and this year included Pressure Technology, IOG and Lamprell. Collectively they reduced the Trust's return in the year by 2.9%.

Even when stocks exceeded forecasts the unfavourable background meant that their share prices did not necessarily rise as much as might have been expected. There were a few exceptions - a new holding in Zoo Digital, purchased early in the year, appreciated significantly and given that the capital could be reinvested in other portfolio holdings at even lower valuations, it was sold for a profit later. The share price of a new holding in Petro Matad, also appreciated so rapidly that a portion was sold later in the year. Yu Group, a utility that supplies energy to corporates, was the most significant contributor to return as its share price appreciated by 176% after a series of above expectation statements. Yu Group alone added 2.5% to the Trust's return in the year, and yet, given its prospects, it is still standing on a very overlooked valuation in our view even after its appreciation. Overall, this example underlines why a microcap portfolio can deliver such strong returns over the longer term. The Trust's individual holdings have the potential to appreciate by a multiple of their initial purchase price. There were a few examples this year, but in a normal year these would be more numerous.

In the light of the substantial decline in the Trust's NAV over the last two years, to what degree have its longer-term prospects deteriorated?

After the global pandemic, and the giant financial stimulus, global assets valuations rose to very elevated levels in early 2021. Subsequently, over the two years to April 2023, global asset valuations have retreated somewhat, back towards prior norms, due to inflationary pressures and interest rate rises.

Interestingly, although the UK stock market underperformed most international exchanges during the globalisation decades, over the last two years it has now started outperforming all the international major indices. Specifically, the recent outperformance is all the more impressive given that UK open ended investment companies ("OEICs") have been redeemed at a near-record pace for several quarters. In our view, this underlines just how undervalued the UK stock market had become over the globalisation decades when assets paying good and growing dividends were outpaced by those with ambitious growth targets.

During the globalisation decades, UK-quoted microcaps were also overlooked. Whilst they did outperform during the year to April 2021, as few pay significant dividends, their share prices have been vulnerable to the global decline in asset valuations and the ongoing selling of UK equities over the last two years. The share prices of quoted microcaps have underperformed those of the UK majors by a very wide margin. Since many were undervalued relative to the UK majors even prior this underperformance, microcaps are in many cases now standing on low valuations in our view.

Clearly, the rise in interest rates and the economic slowdown will have reduced the longer-term prospects for some. But when their prospects are considered in absolute terms, it should be remembered that corporate sales tend to rise with inflation. In addition, those with strong balance sheets stand at an advantage compared to those which are capital constrained. Furthermore, if there is a major rise in corporate insolvencies, then those that are well financed can expand into the vacated markets, or acquire the overindebted but otherwise viable businesses, debt-free from the receiver at very low prices.

The bottom line is that despite the current economic slowdown and weak microcap share prices, we believe the prospects for most of the Trust's holdings are actively improving. Their relatively unleveraged balance sheets, and ongoing access to external risk capital (albeit at weak share prices) become all the more valuable when most private competitors are facing increasingly binding debt and capital constraints.

What are the main factors that have driven the Trust's returns since it first listed in April 2015?

As noted earlier in the report, the best performing group of stocks in the UK stock market since 1955

(the start of the data series) have been quoted microcaps. When the investment universe is narrowed further, to include solely microcaps standing on undemanding valuations (this is typically determined by a low Price/Book ratio), the scale of microcap outperformance is even more marked. With this background in mind, the Trust's portfolio is principally invested in UK quoted microcaps standing on what we consider to be cheap valuations at the time of purchase. When these microcaps succeed, their share prices can rise by a multiple of the purchase price whereas this is less usual amongst the mainstream stocks.

After the Trust was set up in April 2015, initially globalisation continued to enhance the returns of global stock markets, with the UK stock market being outpaced by other international exchanges. With the global pandemic and Ukrainian war, the vulnerabilities of globalisation were highlighted, and inflationary pressures returned. Interestingly, whilst most global stock markets have declined over the last two years, the largest UK stocks have outperformed.

This change of pattern is all the more remarkable, as over the period of Brexit negotiations, most UK institutional investors have become more cautious about investing in the UK stock market. Alongside, UK institutions have further redeemed UK equities to increase weightings in other assets over the last two years. Crucially, in our view, international investors have become more interested in dividend income strategies over recent years, and hence the UK mainstream stocks have outperformed, even through a period of heavy OEIC redemptions. In contrast, UK microcaps missed out on international interest, so for them the local selling of UK equities have further depressed their share prices.

The net effect is that microcap share prices that had already fallen to unusually low valuations a couple of years ago, have suffered additional share price weakness. If anything, these adverse effects have been particularly concentrated at the bottom end of the market capitalisation range where the Trust invests, and hence the Trust's returns are lower than the comparative indices at present.

Total returns since launce in April 2015

	%
Numis All-Share	49.6
Numis Smaller Companies ex ICs + AIM	42.5
Numis 1000 Index	44.8
MINI NAV	33.7

As outlined elsewhere in this report, we are greatly encouraged to see the UK stock market outperforming most international peers again. In time, we anticipate the new pattern will spread down the market capitalisation bands, enhancing the returns of the Trust's strategy. In our view, we saw a glimpse of the Trust's potential between March 2020 and April 2021 when its NAV rose by almost 250%.

Will institutional investors ever return to the UK quoted microcap investment universe?

Typically, over multi-decade periods, the returns on global stock markets are principally driven by the initial dividend yield at the time of purchase and how much it grows over time. In contrast, during globalisation periods, stock market returns are typically less closely correlated to dividend yields. Specifically, during globalisation, the deflation on imported goods offsets local inflation so inflationary pressures become subnormal. During these periods, asset valuations and corporate profit margins both rise to exceptional levels. Typically, stock exchanges related to growth companies are the best performers.

The bottom line is that substantial capital gains have been abundant during globalisation. Stock markets with returns principally related to compounding good and growing dividends, such as the UK, have been outpaced. Over three decades, institutional interest in the UK stock market has deteriorated, so it has become undervalued and underrepresented compared with others. More recently, Brexit and the ongoing OEIC liquidations have led to UK microcaps falling to valuations that are even more overlooked than the majors, coupled with little institutional participation at present.

We believe the new pattern will also be associated with an ongoing depreciation of asset valuations and corporate profit margins that will generally undermine the returns for international stock markets. In contrast to the period of globalisation, the net effect could be that most international stock markets deliver disappointing returns. Meanwhile, we anticipate that the UK stock market will continue to outperform, as it did between 1965 and 1985, with UK microcaps being the best element, like a rich seam within a world of relatively disappointing returns.

In time, as UK institutions skew their portfolios back into cash compounding dividend stocks, we expect them to rebuild their UK holdings. As the best UK returns are likely to be found within microcaps, we anticipate that institutional capital will start to waterfall down the market capitalisation range. It is important to note that more than half of all quoted companies listed in London are microcaps with market capitalisations of below £150m.

Number of quoted companies in the UK below and above £150m market capitalisation

	No of Companies
<£150m	598	Combined market capitalisation £15.9bn
>£150m	569	Combined market capitalisation £2.039bn

Source: Premier Miton

Overall, as the recent lag in microcap performance begins to unwind, we believe there are excellent

opportunities for a specialist Trust like Miton UK Microcap Trust to gather very significant institutional interest.

What are the prospects of the Trust?

As noted above, we believe that the Miton UK MicroCap Trust strategy differs from most others, in having the potential to deliver an attractive return even at times when the mainstream stock market indices may not be rising. Given that it has underperformed so considerably over recent years, why do we retain such strong confidence in its prospects?

1.   Specifically, UK quoted microcaps tend to operate in industry sectors where demand is often growing on a structural basis, rather than in line with the cyclical fluctuations of the global economy. Whilst this feature was easy to ignore when the global economy was growing rapidly, it becomes more obvious when global demand is constrained by interest rate rises. Clearly, as globalisation fades, this feature is a major advantage for the Trust's quoted microcap investment universe. Alongside it was worth noting that the historic data is reassuring, as when global growth was challenged in the past, UK quoted microcaps tended to outperform.

2.   When the cost of labour is rising and corporate profit margins are under pressure, it is not uncommon for numerous businesses to run out of cash. Over-indebted businesses in particular often find they are obliged to sell parts of their company, even at disappointing valuations, to repay debt. Others end up in insolvency. At these times, quoted companies specifically have the advantage, as they can raise additional capital to acquire these operations at low valuations, with the prospect of rapid cash paybacks. Whilst such transactions enhance the returns of large mainstream quoted companies, the same deal for a quoted microcap has proportionally a much greater impact. Hence during periods when mainstream stock market indices might be unsettled, quoted microcaps sometimes have the potential to step up their returns.

To summarise, whilst global share prices have steadily appreciated during globalisation, institutions have been disinterested in UK microcaps because they were withdrawing capital from the UK. In contrast, now that the UK stock market is starting to outperform again, we anticipate that UK institutional capital will also return. Hence, whilst Miton UK MicroCap Trust may have delivered modest returns since issue, we believe its strategy is ready to deliver premium returns in the post globalisation era.

The distinctive features of the Miton UK MicroCap Trust strategy are, in our view, superbly crafted for the changing global dynamics. Importantly, since the scale of the UK quoted microcap investment universe is, by definition, tiny even marginal changes in institutional interest can quickly become self-reinforcing, further enhancing their prospective returns, justifying even greater allocations. Prospects for quoted microcaps are the best they have been for thirty years.

Gervais Williams and Martin Turner

10 July 2023

PORTFOLIO INFORMATION

As at 30 April 2023

Rank	Company	Sector & main activity	Valuation  £'000	% of net assets	Dividend Yield %
1	Yu Group	Utilities	2,830	4.6	0.5
2	MTI Wireless Edge	Telecommunications	1,938	3.2	4.7
3	Cyanconnode Holdings	Telecommunications	1,721	2.8	-
4	Andrada Mining	Basic Materials	1,580	2.6	-
5	Frontier IP Group	Industrials	1,438	2.4	-
6	TruFin	Financials	1,400	2.3	-
7	Accrol Group	Consumer Staples	1,226	2.0	-
8	Shield Therapeutics	Health Care	1,026	1.7	-
9	Braemar	Industrials	973	1.6	3.9
10	Petro Matad	Energy	945	1.6	-
Top 10 investments			15,077	24.8
11	Eneraqua Technologies	Industrials	929	1.5	0.4
12	Kistos	Energy	928	1.5	-
13	Feedback	Health Care	909	1.5	-
14	Sureserve Group	Industrials	891	1.5	-
15	Van Elle Holdings	Industrials	863	1.4	3.3
16	Totally	Health Care	860	1.4	4.7
17	Kinovo	Industrials	840	1.4	-
18	Supreme	Consumer Staples	805	1.3	4.5
19	SmartTech247	Technology	785	1.3	-
20	Elemental Altus Royalties	Basic Materials	727	1.3	-
Top 20 investments			23,614	38.9
21	UP Global Sourcing Holdings	Consumer Discretionary	715	1.2	5.2
22	Kefi Gold and Copper	Basic Materials	708	1.1	-
23	Savannah Resources	Basic Materials	698	1.1	-
24	Zinc Media Group	Consumer Discretionary	686	1.1	-
25	Marwyn Value Investors	Financials	675	1.1	10.1
26	Conygar Investment Company	Real Estate	668	1.1	-
27	Atlantic Lithium	Basic Materials	664	1.1	-
28	Tirupati Graphite	Basic Materials	656	1.1	-
29	CML Microsystems	Technology	649	1.1	2.0
30	Journeo	Industrials	647	1.1	-
Top 30 investments			30,380	50.0
Balance held in equity investments			25,688	42.3
Total equity investments			56,068	92.3
Listed Put Option
	FTSE 100 - December 2023		169	0.3
Other net current assets			4,517	7.4
Net assets			60,754	100.0

* Source: Refinitiv: Based on historical yields and therefore not representative of future yields. Includes special dividends where known.

Portfolio as at 30 April 2023

Portfolio exposure by sector (%)	£60.75 million
Basic Materials	16.2
Industrials	15.3
Energy	10.1
Financial Services	10.0
Health Care	7.7
Telecommunications	7.6
Consumer Discretionary	7.6
Technology	7.5
Cash and cash equivalents	7.4
Utilities	4.7
Consumer Staples	4.0
Real Estate	1.9

Actual annual income by sector (%)	£0.80 million
Financial Services	31.2
Industrials	15.0
Telecommunications	12.8
Consumer Discretionary	11.2
Basic Materials	9.2
Health Care	5.3
Consumer Staples	4.5
Technology	4.2
Real Estate	4.1
Energy	2.5

Net asset by asset allocation (%)	£60.75 million
AIM/AQUIS Exchanges	79.7
Main Market	11.4
Cash and cash equivalents	7.4
International Equities	1.2
FTSE 100 Option	0.3

DIVIDEND RECOMMENDATION

The Directors have recommended the payment of a final dividend in respect of the year of 0.15 pence per Ordinary Share, payable on 26 October 2023 to shareholders who appear on the register on 29 September 2023. The ex-dividend date will be 28 September 2023.

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the eighth annual general meeting of Miton UK MicroCap Trust plc (the "Company") will be held on 26 September 2023 at 11.00 am at the offices of Stephenson Harwood LLP. The Notice of AGM can be found within the full Annual Report and Accounts.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Miton UK MicroCap Trust plc's Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 April 2023 (which includes the notice of meeting for the Company's AGM) will be available today on https://www.mitonukmicrocaptrust.com/documents/.

It will also be submitted shortly in full unedited text to the Financial Conduct Authority's National Storage Mechanism and will be available for inspection at data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism in accordance with DTR 6.3.5(1A) of the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Enquiries:

Miton UK MicroCap Trust plc
Gervais Williams, Martin Turner, Claire Long	Tel: [phone]
Peel Hunt LLP (Broker)
Liz Yong, Luke Simpson, Huw Jeremy		Tel: [phone]

 

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