Merrill Lynch Greater Europe IT PLC
10 November 2004
MERRILL LYNCH GREATER EUROPE INVESTMENT TRUST plc
All information is at 31 October 2004 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
One Since launch
Month (20Sep04)
Net asset value 2.2% 2.2%
Share price 0.8% -1.1%
FTSE World Europe ex UK 3.0% 2.7%
Sources: Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and Datastream.
At month end
Net asset value: 102.26p includes net revenue of 0.01p
Share price: 93.00p
Discount to NAV: 9.1%
Net yield: N/A
Total assets: £168.6m
Ordinary shares in issue: 164,841,285
Benchmark
Sector Analysis Total Assets (%) Index (%) Country Analysis Total Assets (%)
Financials 31.5 29.7 France 21.7
Cyclical Services 11.0 5.9 Italy 15.0
Resources/Energy 9.5 9.4 Germany 12.7
Non-Cyclical Consumer Goods 8.6 15.7 Switzerland 9.9
Telecoms 8.0 9.0 Netherlands 6.7
Cyclical Goods 6.4 4.8 Sweden 5.9
Basic Industries 6.3 7.1 Scandinavia 4.2
Utilities 4.3 5.8 Turkey 4.0
Technology 3.2 5.5 Russia 3.9
Other Investments 2.5 - Spain 3.4
Capital Goods 2.4 5.8 Ireland 3.1
Non-Cyclical Services 1.5 1.3 Other Countries 4.7
Cash/Net Current Assets 4.8 - Cash/Net Current Assets 4.8
----- ----- -----
100.0 100.0 100.0
----- ----- -----
Ten Largest Equity Investments
Company % of Total Assets Country of Risk
Total 4.0 France
E.On 3.2 Germany
UBS 2.6 Switzerland
BNP Paribas 2.5 France
ENI 2.5 Italy
Capitalia Spa 2.5 Italy
IntesaBci 2.3 Italy
Allied Irish Bank 2.3 Ireland
Deutsche Telekom 2.2 Germany
New Century Holdings Eagle 2.1 Russia
----
Total 26.2
----
Commenting on the markets, James Macmillan, representing the Investment Manager
noted:
I am pleased to present the report for October, the first full month of
operation of the Investment Trust.
The month was characterised by rising stock markets in volatile conditions - the
continental European markets gained 3% while the emerging European markets rose
by 4.5%. This was driven by a number of factors, with the predominant feature
being moderately lower energy prices and a weaker US dollar against most other
currencies. Corporate earnings' announcements for the third quarter were
generally better than expected, with highlights being SAP, Nokia, Novartis, SKF
and Hennes and Mauritz.
The Trust's NAV increased in value by 2.2% during the month, restrained by the
defensive positioning that we adopted at the outset and by the cash balance
which was earmarked for investment in the emerging European markets. The sectors
that led the market were the higher beta technology and telecoms sectors while
the worst performance came from food retail and pharmaceuticals. Risk appetite
increased modestly although higher quality companies tended to perform well.
Large capitalisation stocks outperformed the small cap area of the market.
The best contribution to the Trust's performance came from the investments in
Altran, E.On and Alpha Bank while the biggest detractors included Ericsson,
Skandia and Puma.
The process of selectively committing capital to the emerging European markets
continued during October as we invested in seven new positions in this area,
predominantly in Turkey and Poland. The total exposure to emerging Europe has
increased to 9.3% as at the end of the month. We also continued to increase
exposure in developed European names, buying six new positions and increasing
the holdings of some of the key stocks such as Total, Capitalia, AIB and
Deutsche Telekom. We also took profits in a couple of positions which included
Ericsson, DNB Nor, Euronext, Nokia and Credit Suisse.
The main bias of the portfolio is towards the banking, energy and telecom
sectors while the main country exposures are in France, Italy and Germany. The
average market capitalisation of the portfolio has been reduced to just over
£20bn as a result of the increase in exposure to emerging Europe, where
capitalisations are typically lower.
Our outlook remains somewhat cautious due to our expectation that earnings
forecasts for 2005 are too high in general, especially given the growing
headwind of a strong Euro which will crimp profit margins. The valuation of the
market is reasonable which should limit the downside and it is hard to see a
major threat coming from rising interest rates in Europe; the risks are skewed
more towards slower growth. Hence the portfolio positioning will remain on the
defensive tack, focusing on restructuring stories and on companies which have
the ability to generate earnings growth in the absence of strong external
stimuli.
I look forward to reviewing the progress of our investment strategy over the
coming months.
Latest information is available by typing www.mlim.co.uk/its on the internet,
'MLIMINDEX' on Reuters, 'MLIM' on Bloomberg or '8800' on Topic 3 (ICV terminal).
10 November 2004
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
*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.