THE THROGMORTON TRUST PLC
All information is at 31 October 2008 and unaudited.
Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income basis
One Three One Three
Month Months Year Years
Net asset value# -21.6% -31.2% -52.5% -37.2%
Net asset value* -21.6% -34.6% -54.9% -40.3%
Share price -29.0% -38.7% -56.2% -43.6%
HGSC ex Inv Trust + AIM -22.0% -32.8% -51.1% -30.2%
# NAV prior to costs of repaying the debentures early
* NAV after costs of repaying the debentures early
Sources: BlackRock and Datastream
At month end
Net asset value Capital only: 94.46p
Net asset value incl Income: 96.57p
Share price: 76.00p
Discount to Capital only NAV: 19.5%
Net yield: 3.0%
Total assets: £79.5m **
Gearing: Nil
Ordinary shares in continuing pool: 82,351,197
**Includes current year revenue.
Ten Largest Sector
Weightings % of Total Assets
Software & Computer Services 14.6
Financial Services 11.4
Aerospace & Defence 10.2
Support Services 9.4
Industrial Engineering 8.1
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 6.5
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 5.8
Oil & Gas Producers 5.2
Chemicals 4.2
Media 2.9
----
Total 78.3
====
Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order)
Company
Aveva Group
Dechra Pharmaceuticals
Domino Printing Sciences
Endace
Rathbone Brothers
Rensburg Sheppards
SDL
Ultra Electronics
UMECO
Victrex
Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis and Richard Plackett, representing the
Investment Manager noted:
October was a very poor month for stockmarkets and for the Company. The
Company's NAV fell by 21.6%, whilst the benchmark index fell by 22.0%. By way
of comparison the FTSE 100 Index fell by 10.7%. Stockmarket conditions
continued to be affected by nervousness about the state of the world economy,
as data was published that showed the UK, US and some other developed economies
had seen a fall in GDP in the third quarter. Emerging market growth is slowing
rapidly and some more highly indebted emerging markets saw sharp declines in
their currencies and in certain cases have sought help from the International
Monetary Fund. Resources prices have fallen further as demand has slowed.
In relative terms, the best stock contributions came from Rensburg Sheppards,
Dmatek, Endace and Abacus. Given that the level of stockmarkets is a key factor
determining Rensburg's revenues, its shares have held up well. We see it as a
business with reliable, recurring revenue streams which will recover well in
due course. Dmatek and Abacus both attracted takeover approaches. Endace
continues to trade well - its October pre-close update pointed to strong
revenue and profit growth. We have subsequently held an encouraging meeting
with management.
The worst relative performers during the month were Fenner and City of London
Investment Group. Fenner shares have been very weak over the last few months,
falling 42% in October alone. The market is concerned by likely cutbacks in
capital expenditure by mining companies following falls in commodity prices.
Fenner is bound to be affected by these concerns, although a significant part
of its sales are consumables and therefore should be more resilient. City of
London manage emerging markets funds for institutional clients; emerging
markets indices have fallen substantially in recent months, although City of
London have outperformed and if anything seem to be seeing net inflows now.
New holdings in the month included Premier Oil, Bellway, Savills, Hiscox and
BRIT Insurance, 0.5% of the portfolio was put into each holding. We also
continued to add to a number of our core holdings. Premier Oil shares have
fallen about 60% from their peak, and trade well below the core value
attributed to its oil and gas reserves. Production is expected to continue to
grow steadily from its current 35,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Although the housing market is in crisis we regard Bellway as a very well run,
lowly geared housebuilder, and felt it had reached attractive levels at the
price we bought stock; we do expect more bad news from the sector but believe
Bellway can find a way through these problems. Savills is also very well run,
and a great brand name across its markets. Following the demise of AIG, and in
view of the impact of hurricane Ike, it now looks as though enough capacity
will come out of the insurance market to push up premiums in 2009. We decided
to reduce our underweight position and bought holdings in Hiscox and BRIT
Insurance.
We reduced the size of a number of holdings, and completed the sale of others
such as Axon which is subject to an agreed bid from HCL of India.
The CFD portfolio has been set up as envisaged and has generated positive
returns to date.
Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/its on the
internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV
terminal).
25 November 2008
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