BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc | ||||||||||||||
All information is at 30 September 2015 and unaudited. | ||||||||||||||
Performance at month end with net income reinvested | ||||||||||||||
One | Three | One | Three | Five | ||||||||||
Month | Months | Year | Years | Years | ||||||||||
Net asset value | -9.6% | -27.2% | -45.8% | -61.1% | -65.1% | |||||||||
Share price | -6.5% | -26.3% | -48.2% | -58.3% | -59.9% | |||||||||
Euromoney Global Mining Index | -8.9% | -25.3% | -39.5% | -54.0% | -61.0% | |||||||||
(Total return) | ||||||||||||||
Sources: BlackRock, Euromoney Global Mining Index, Datastream | ||||||||||||||
At month end | ||||||||||||||
Net asset value including income*: | 222.70p | |||||||||||||
Net asset value capital only: | 214.01p | |||||||||||||
*Includes net revenue of 8.69p | ||||||||||||||
Share price: | 205.75p | |||||||||||||
Discount to NAV**: | 7.6% | |||||||||||||
Total assets: | £469.9m | |||||||||||||
Net yield***: | 10.2% | |||||||||||||
Net gearing: | 18.5% | |||||||||||||
Ordinary shares in issue: | 177,287,242 | |||||||||||||
Ordinary shares held in treasury: | 15,724,600 | |||||||||||||
Ongoing charges****: | 1.4% | |||||||||||||
** Discount to NAV including income. *** Based on an interim dividend of 7.00p in respect of the year ending 31 December 2015 and a final dividend of 14.00p in respect of the year ended 31 December 2014. **** Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding finance costs for the year ended 31 December 2014. |
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Sector | % Total | Country Analysis | % Total | |||||||||||
Assets | Assets | |||||||||||||
Diversified | 41.9 | Global | 48.6 | |||||||||||
Base Metals | 20.4 | Latin America | 16.3 | |||||||||||
Gold | 14.7 | Australasia | 9.3 | |||||||||||
Silver & Diamonds | 11.2 | Other Africa | 8.0 | |||||||||||
Industrial Minerals | 4.5 | Canada | 7.1 | |||||||||||
Other | 3.9 | Emerging Europe | 5.5 | |||||||||||
Energy Minerals | 1.9 | South Africa | 2.2 | |||||||||||
Aluminium | 0.6 | China | 1.9 | |||||||||||
Zinc | 0.4 | Indonesia | 0.6 | |||||||||||
Net current assets | 0.5 | Net current assets | 0.5 | |||||||||||
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100.0 | 100.0 | |||||||||||||
===== | ===== | |||||||||||||
Ten Largest Investments | ||||||||||||||
Company |
% Total Assets |
|||||||||||||
BHP Billiton | 13.9 | |||||||||||||
Rio Tinto | 12.7 | |||||||||||||
First Quantum Minerals | 6.6 | |||||||||||||
Lundin Mining | 5.1 | |||||||||||||
Norilsk Nickel | 5.0 | |||||||||||||
Cerro Verde | 3.7 | |||||||||||||
Glencore | 3.5 | |||||||||||||
Fresnillo | 3.5 | |||||||||||||
Avanco Resources | 3.3 | |||||||||||||
Iluka Resources | 2.7 | |||||||||||||
Commenting on the markets, Evy Hambro and Olivia Markham, representing the Investment Manager noted: |
Performance |
Continued concerns over the strength of the Chinese economy led to another challenging and volatile month for the mining sector. China’s September Manufacturing PMI came in at 47.2, which was down from 47.3 in August and represented the lowest reading since March 2009. Meanwhile, data for August showed that fixed-asset investment in China had increased at its slowest pace in 15 years. These data points worsened sentiment towards the mining sector which, as measured by the Euromoney Global Mining Index, fell below the lowest levels seen during the depths of the Global Financial Crisis. |
During the month, there continued to be a disconnect between the moves in mining shares and the moves in underlying commodity prices. For example, copper equities continued to sell off aggressively, evidenced by the Euromoney Global Mining Copper Index falling -12.0%, whilst the physical copper price finished the month up +0.6%. |
Diversified miner Glencore dominated the headlines during the month. On 7 September, the company announced plans to reduce its debt by $10bn through an equity issuance, suspension of its 2015 final dividend and 2016 interim dividend and through a number of other measures. Later in the month, increased concerns about the company’s debt level caused its share price to fall -29.7% in just one day (28 September). However, over the remaining two days of the month the market’s concerns over immediate liquidity dissipated and the company’s share price bounced back, recovering almost all of that one day fall - an example of the extreme volatility seen in mining shares during September. Having reduced our exposure to Glencore throughout 2015, we added to our position through participating in the company’s placement on 16 September. In our view, the measures announced by Glencore represent a positive step towards strengthening its balance sheet and this is necessary in the current commodity price environment. |
Gold equities outperformed the broader mining space over the month as they were less impacted by worsening sentiment towards China and as they benefited from the gold price holding up better than most mined commodities. Our overweight positions in a number of high quality, mid-cap gold producers contributed positively to the Company's relative performance. |
All data points in USD terms |
Strategy and Outlook |
Good company strategy has been outweighed by weakening commodity demand and falling commodity prices in the past year. Looking ahead, the outlook for commodity prices remains subdued, given expectations of further US dollar strength and a modest demand outlook. This pressure will continue to force tough decisions and mining companies are likely to remain in austerity mode. Recent commodity price falls suggest further cuts to analyst earnings will be required. As the year progresses, we would expect an acceleration of closures of high-cost capacity in oversupplied markets. This bodes well for the longer term and limits the industry’s ability to respond to the next upturn in demand which will ultimately see prices go higher. |
While the sector continues to face headwinds, it is important to remember that we are another year further into the underinvestment phase and closer to the deficit markets that we foresee. We expect an inflection point to be reached once price (and consequently return) expectations start to recover as a result of the supply curtailment, which should accelerate with the current commodity price weakness. |
15 October 2015 |
ENDS |
Latest information is available by typing www.brwmplc.co.uk on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV 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. |