THE THROGMORTON TRUST PLC
All information is at 30 November 2009 and unaudited.
Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income basis
One Three One Three
Month Months Year Years
Net asset value# 0.1% 8.9% 65.3% -17.0%
Net asset value^ 0.1% 8.9% 65.3% -20.9%
Net asset value^^ 0.1% 8.9% 65.3% -20.9%
Share price 1.1% 6.2% 100.0% -21.4%
Subscription share price 77.8% n/a n/a n/a
HGSC plus AIM (ex Inv Cos) -0.2% 3.8% 59.5% -17.8%
# NAV prior to costs of repaying the debentures early
^ NAV after costs of repaying the debentures early - undiluted
^^ NAV after costs of repaying debentures early - diluted
Sources: BlackRock and Datastream
At month end
Net asset value capital only: 140.74p
Net asset value incl. Income: 144.74p
Share price: 115.75p
Discount to capital only NAV: 17.8%
Subscription share price: 8.00p
Net yield: 3.3%
Total assets: £107.4m *
Gearing: 0.2%
Ordinary shares in issue: 74,116,108 **
Subscription shares in issue: 14,822,901
* Includes current year revenue.
** Excluding 7,400,000 shares held in treasury.
Ten Largest Sector
Weightings % of Total Assets
Software & Computer Services 11.5
Financial Services 9.6
Mining 8.2
Oil & Gas Producers 7.3
Support Services 7.0
Technology Hardware & Equipment 6.0
Industrial Engineering 5.9
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 4.7
Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology 4.4
Media 4.3
----
Total 68.9
====
Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order)
Company
Abcam Group
Aveva Group
BATM Advanced Communications
Brewin Dolphin Holdings
City of London Investment Group
Domino Prining Sciences
Fidessa Group
Rensburg Sheppards
Rotork
Victrex
Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis and Richard Plackett, representing the
Investment Manager noted:
November was a flat month in absolute terms and on a relative basis we
performed marginally ahead of the benchmark. The FTSE 100 rose by 2.9%.
The main contributor to relative outperformance in the long only portfolio was
our holding in Eastern Platinum. Eastern Platinum's Crocodile River platinum
mine is a relatively low cost and shallow mine in South Africa. It is very well
run, and has benefited from the rise in platinum group metal prices in recent
months. Eastern Platinum's assets are long life; the company is well placed to
benefit from recovering automotive demand and the strong increase in demand for
platinum jewellery.
None of our holdings performed especially poorly in relative terms during the
month. However, relative performance was adversely affected by being materially
underweight in general retailers, which outperformed the benchmark by five
percentage points during the month. We do not see this as sustainable. Whilst
many retailers are coming out with relatively good trading statements, they are
being helped by very weak comparative figures. With VAT and other taxes
increasing, we think 2010 could be very grim for many retailers.
We sold our holding in Greene King. This is a well run pub company, its debt
burden is more manageable than many of its peers and its valuation is far from
expensive. However, we do not expect trading conditions to become easier in
2010, and could well deteriorate. On this basis there are more attractive
stocks to own; we particularly favour good quality stocks which generate much
of their revenue from overseas, especially from Asia Pacific and the Americas.
We bought a small holding, 0.25% of our net asset value, in Borders and
Southern, which owns significant acreage south of the Falklands. The company
raised £113 million by way of a placing during the month in which we took part.
The placing is to fund a drilling campaign in the latter part of 2010. The
targets it has identified from 3D seismic are huge multi billion barrel oil
opportunities. This is clearly high risk exploration drilling, but we believe
the upside is sufficiently attractive to justify a small position.
The CFD portfolio had another profitable month. The long CFD portfolio
comprises good quality, sensibly valued companies, well known to us, and in
almost all cases owned in the long only portfolio. The short CFD portfolio
mainly comprises companies we regard as strategically challenged, or with
limited sustainable competitive advantage, or with over optimistic management.
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).
17 December 2009
*A Private Investor is a recipient of the information who meets all of the conditions set out below, the recipient:
Obtains access to the information in a personal capacity;
Is not required to be regulated or supervised by a body concerned with the regulation or supervision of investment or financial services;
Is not currently registered or qualified as a professional securities trader or investment adviser with any national or state exchange, regulatory authority, professional association or recognised professional body;
Does not currently act in any capacity as an investment adviser, whether or not they have at some time been qualified to do so;
Uses the information solely in relation to the management of their personal funds and not as a trader to the public or for the investment of corporate funds;
Does not distribute, republish or otherwise provide any information or derived works to any third party in any manner or use or process information or derived works for any commercial purposes.
Please note, this site uses cookies. Some of the cookies are essential for parts of the site to operate and have already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but if you do, parts of the site may not work. To find out more about the cookies used on Investegate and how you can manage them, see our Privacy and Cookie Policy
To continue using Investegate, please confirm that you are a private investor as well as agreeing to our Privacy and Cookie Policy & Terms.