Merrill Lynch World Mining Tst PLC
11 June 2003
MERRILL LYNCH WORLD MINING TRUST plc
All information is at 30 May 2003 and unaudited.
Performance at month end with net income reinvested
One Three One Three Five
month months year years years
Net asset value 5.6% -1.2% -15.0% 60.1% 111.5%
Share price 5.8% -2.0% -19.3% 67.9% 101.8%
HSBC Global Mining Index (capital only) 5.2% 0.9% -20.6% 15.1% 31.3%
Sources: Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, HSBC Global Mining Index,
Datastream
At month end
Net asset value: 145.77p* Discount to NAV: 16.1%
Share price: 122.25p Net historic yield: 1.7%
Total assets: £243.4m
Gearing: 3.5% Effective gearing: 4.9%
Ordinary shares in issue: 162,800,000
* includes current year net revenue of 1.28p
Sector Analysis % Total Country Analysis % Total Assets
Assets
Diversified 33.4 Europe 23.8
Gold 26.1 South Africa 22.7
Base Metals 19.2 Australasia 17.9
Platinum 9.0 Canada 16.3
Silver/Diamonds 6.4 Latin America 14.8
Industrial Minerals 4.6 China 3.5
Gold Bullion 2.7 USA 1.7
Net current liabilities (1.4) Vietnam 0.5
Africa 0.2
Net current liabilities (1.4)
100.0 100.0
Ten Largest Equity Investments
Company % of Investments Country of Risk
Minas Buenaventura 7.0 Peru
Gold Fields 6.8 South Africa
BHP Billiton 6.4 Global
Impala Platinum 6.0 South Africa
Harmony Gold Mining 5.0 South Africa
CVRD 4.9 Brazil
Rio Tinto 4.9 Global
Aber Diamond 4.9 Canada
Falconbridge 3.9 Canada
Inco 3.5 Canada
Total 53.3
Commenting on the markets, Graham Birch, representing the Investment Manager
noted:
Mining shares moved higher during the month against the background of a
continued recovery in global equity markets. The Trust's Net Asset Value per
share beat its benchmark by a narrow margin, helped by our 'overweight' position
in gold shares.
Weakness in the US dollar helped to trigger a sharp bounce in the price of gold
which rose by 7.5% (US dollar terms), at one point touching a high of $370/oz.
We added to the Trust's gold exposure, raising our 'gold bullion' position to
just below one metric tonne - equivalent to 2.7% of the Trust's total assets.
Additionally, we initiated a holding in Placer Dome and increased the holding in
Ashanti - with fortuitous timing given that AngloGold announced a planned bid
for the company shortly afterwards.
In a further gold corporate development, Harmony announced a planned merger with
Armgold and also acquired Anglo American's stake in Avmin.
Since the end of the month, the long running Xstrata-MIM merger was approved by
MIM shareholders. This was an important transaction for the Trust as the
holding in Xstrata (fully paid) amounts to 2.8% of the portfolio and the holding
in MIM is over 3.3% of the portfolio. Furthermore, the Trust had
sub-underwritten two million Xstrata shares in its rights issue.
Corporate action certainly seems to be 'on the up' in the mining sector.
Base metals prices were also strong during May, led higher by nickel which was
buoyed by news that Inco's Sudbury workers have begun indefinite strike action.
Nickel was in any case a tight market and if the strike is lengthy, nickel could
move significantly higher. We have added to our holding in Falconbridge and
initiated a holding in Noranda as a result.
Derivatives
The Trust has written put and call options covering a portion of its holding in
BHP Billiton. If exercised, these could result in the BHP Billiton holding
either reducing to about 5.8% of the portfolio or increasing to 7.6% of the
portfolio. The Trust has written call options in CVRD, which if exercised would
reduce the Trust's holding to 4.1% of the portfolio. The Trust has written put
options in MIM, which given the success of the Xstrata bid, will lapse.
Outlook
Markets are taking a more pro-cyclical stance at the moment, which we are
enjoying. However we will shortly enter a period of seasonal weakness for metal
markets (coinciding with the northern hemisphere summer) and this may introduce
more volatility to mining share markets.
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).
11 June 2003
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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