Portfolio Update
BLACKROCK GREATER EUROPE INVESTMENT TRUST plc
All information is at 28 February 2015 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
One Three One Three Launch
Month Months Year Years (20 Sep 04)
Net asset value* (undiluted) 2.6% 3.5% 1.2% 45.6% 208.0%
Net asset value* (diluted) 2.2% 3.1% 2.5% 45.4% 207.1%
Share price 0.8% 2.5% -1.7% 38.7% 190.9%
FTSE World Europe ex UK 3.0% 2.3% 5.2% 43.9% 149.6%
Sources: BlackRock and Datastream
At month end
Net asset value (capital only): 253.17p
Net asset value (including income): 253.88p
Net asset value (capital only)*: 252.33p
Net asset value (including income)*: 252.92p
Share price: 238.25p
Discount to NAV (including income): 6.2%
Discount to NAV (including income)*: 5.8%
Subscription share price: 12.00p
Net gearing: 0.5%
Net yield**: 2.0%
Total assets (including income): £277.70m
Ordinary shares in issue***: 105,676,343
Subscription shares: 20,633,300
Ongoing charges****: 0.94%
* Diluted for subscription shares and treasury shares.
** Based on a final dividend of 3.2p and an interim dividend of 1.5p per share
for the year ended 31 August 2014.
*** Excluding 5,561,653 shares held in treasury.
**** Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses,
excluding performance fees and interest costs, after relief for taxation for
the year ended 31 August 2014.
Sector Analysis Total Assets (%) Country Analysis Total Assets (%)
Financials 32.8 Germany 17.0
Consumer Goods 18.2 France 16.4
Industrials 15.1 Switzerland 13.5
Health Care 8.0 Italy 11.5
Consumer Services 6.9 Netherlands 7.3
Technology 6.1 Sweden 6.9
Base Materials 4.8 Ireland 6.4
Telecommunications 2.8 Denmark 5.4
Utilities 2.4 Belgium 3.3
Net current assets 2.9 Turkey 3.2
----- Finland 2.6
100.0 Russia 2.5
===== Spain 1.1
Net current assets 2.9
-----
100.0
=====
Ten Largest Equity Investments
% of
Company Country Total Assets
Novo-Nordisk Denmark 4.6
Novartis Switzerland 4.2
Roche Switzerland 3.8
Bayer Germany 3.6
KBC Groep Belgium 3.3
AXA France 3.2
Daimler Germany 3.2
Intesa Sanpaolo Italy 3.1
Deutsche Telekom Germany 2.8
Heineken Netherlands 2.7
Commenting on the markets, Vincent Devlin, representing the Investment Manager
noted:
During the month, the Company's NAV returned +2.6% and the share price returned
+0.8%. For reference, the FTSE World Europe ex UK Index returned +3.0% during
the same period. (All in Sterling terms with income reinvested).
European Equity markets rallied strongly in February, outperforming most other
equity markets globally. Sentiment was buoyed by the European Central Bank's
(ECB) announcement of Quantitative Easing (QE) towards the end of January and
an eventual extension to the Greek bailout package by four months. Economic
indicators for Europe also continued to pick up, with consumer confidence
increasing, positive manufacturing data and German New Orders for December
significantly exceeding expectations. Within the market, cyclical sectors
tended to outperform, continuing a trend established towards the end of 2014.
Financials, Basic Materials and Industrials led the market, along with Oil &
Gas which rallied as the oil price found a floor. Small and mid-cap stocks also
outperformed larger stocks. As a result of this improved sentiment, investors
began to buy back into Europe as a source of both relative value and positive
economic momentum when compared with other regions such as the US.
Stock selection was the primary driver of fund underperformance during
February. Sector allocation, however, was a positive contributor. The larger
exposure to Financials and limited exposure to Utilities were positive for
performance. Detractions on a sector basis came from the Company's larger
exposure to Health Care and lesser exposure to Utilities.
Stock selection within the financials industry was the largest detractor to
performance during the month. This was largely driven by holdings in Turkish
banks T Granti and Turkiye Halk Banka. The Turkish banking sector was weak
across the board during February. This was driven mainly by increased political
pressure from President Erdogan on the central bank to speed up interest rate
cuts. This sparked fears that the measures taken in 2014 to support the Lira
would be reversed sooner than expected. A number of large cap names also
detracted, including Zurich Insurance and Unilever, as this area of the market
began to decline. Zurich Insurance also saw downgrades after reporting weaker
than expected full year results.
Sberbank of Russia, KBC Groep, Intesa Sanpaolo and Bank of Ireland were
contributors during February as the banking sector in Europe generally rallied
due to supportive policy measures coming from the ECB. Bank of Ireland,
particularly, has rallied as Irish economic confidence and sentiment has
improved.
At the end of the month, the Company had higher exposure to Financials,
Technology and Consumer Services. The Company had less exposure to Oil & Gas,
Basic Materials, Health Care, Utilities, Consumer Goods and Telecoms. The
Company's exposure to Industrials was in line with the benchmark.
Outlook
The European market has grown 15% year-to-date, driven by the supportive ECB
action in January. The key aspect we should focus on is the fact that the
European economy is now recovering driven by supportive action in terms of QE,
the weak Euro and lower oil price. QE is going to inject €60bn a month into
Europe and this will not only apply downward pressure on bond yields, but will
also have repercussions for European companies. The cost of debt for companies
has collapsed over the last six months and we believe that companies are going
to take advantage of the favourable financing conditions to issue more and
cheaper debt both to refinance existing debt and/or to acquire other
businesses. Moreover, the economic recovery is going to drive demand and
earnings higher, which should be supportive for markets. As the recovery
continues to gather momentum, and as the ECB rolls out its QE programme, we
believe that the elevated risk premium on European equities has room to fall
further from here.
16 March 2015
ENDS
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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.