Final Results
Lindsell Train Investment Trust PLC
04 June 2007
The Lindsell Train Investment Trust plc
Objective of the Company
To maximise long-term total returns subject to the avoidance of loss of absolute value and with a minimum
objective to maintain the real purchasing power of sterling capital, as measured by the annual average yield on
the 2.5% Consolidated Loan Stock.
Financial highlights
Performance comparisons 1 April 2006 - 31 March 2007
Middle market share price per Ordinary Share + 19.9%
Net Asset Value per Ordinary Share (^) + 15.6%
Benchmark* + 4.3%
MSCI World Index (sterling) + 0.2%
UK RPI Inflation (all items) + 4.8%
(^) The Net Asset Value at 31 March 2007 has been adjusted to include the dividend of £1.75 per Ordinary Share
paid on 26 July 2006.
* The index of the annual average yield on the 2.5% Consolidated Loan Stock between the relevant dates.
Chairman's Statement
Your Company performed well this year. The net asset value ('NAV') advanced by15.6%*. This compared to a rise of 4.3%
in the benchmark index and a rise of 0.2% in world stock markets as measured by the MSCI index in Sterling. The poor
performance of the index was largely attributable to Sterling that strengthened by 13.2% versus the US dollar over the
year. The NAV of your Company was also negatively affected by this change, as 28% of the Company's assets were invested
in US dollar securities or cash but the index, with its approximately 50% weighting in the US market, was more
disadvantaged.
This year's performance follows on from good years to March 2005 and 2006. The cumulative effect of these returns
earned the managers a performance fee of £85,000 and the Directors an aggregate contractual bonus of £8,500 having
exceed the performance hurdle that had compounded at the rate of return of the benchmark in the years since the last
performance fee was paid in March 2002.
It was encouraging to see the most significant contribution to performance last year was from Nintendo, an investment
that the Company has held for six years, but before 2006 and 2007 contributed little. This experience is illustrative
of how our managers work. They identify an exceptional business franchise, establish an initial investment at a price
they believe to be undervalued, add to the position if it becomes cheaper (Nintendo fell in value by more than 50%
during the first 2 years of ownership), in order to build up a substantial position that could have a material effect
on the Company's NAV once other investors recognise the potential. That moment was long in coming but was worth waiting
for as Nintendo's share price was up 98.5%* in the year to March 2007, following on from a 54%* gain to March 2006.
Having generated such a gain it is most unusual for our managers to sell any shares, unlike most other investors who
are often persuaded by their friendly stockbroker to search out the next idea. You can learn why, in the specific case
of Nintendo, by reading the manager's report. It is worth noting that this policy of clinging onto winning positions
contributed handsomely to the returns from last year. Marstons (formerly Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries) and AG Barr,
both winners in past years, gained a further 41.4%* and 32.7%* respectively in the year to March 2007. As these
positions had grown as a percentage of the fund through appreciation over time, the contribution to returns last year
was all the more significant.
Another characteristic of the way our managers invest is the importance they attach to dividends. In a company where
the objective is to preserve and grow sterling capital in real terms, the dividend or income from any investment is a
tangible indication of comparative value both against prevailing inflation, the benchmark and bonds. This is especially
important in difficult times when the direction and quantum of company earnings is unpredictable. I am sure that the
relatively high yields characteristic of most of the equity investments in the portfolio in 2001 and 2002 contributed
to the relative stability of the Company's NAV at that time, when equity markets were declining. Not only do dividends
provide support to prices in torrid times but also the growth in dividends provides the impetus for share price
appreciation as well. Now, just over six years since the company was established the current dividend yield on the
average purchase price of the three successful investments above is for Nintendo 4.7%, Marstons 10.0% and AG Barr 7.7%.
We hope these will rise much further in future years as these businesses continue to prosper.
Lindsell Train Limited, the investment we own in the management company itself, is another business where dividends
have grown strongly in reflection of its success. The 2006 dividend was up 50% and represented over 12% of the gross
income of your Company. Net funds under management grew by 31% to £443m reflecting both the positive effects of market
appreciation and new fund inflows. It is particularly encouraging to note that the CF Lindsell Train UK Equity Fund
(OEIC), launched in July last year, has already garnered net assets of £44m. Performance last year was good in Japan
and the UK, the two major strategies that the Company offers investors, which bodes well for further growth in the
business. The Directors' valuation of the shares increased by 28%, and currently stands at £3,029 per share: this, for
a company that generates earnings per share of £225, dividend per share of £180 and with a book value per share of
£350.
I indicated in my semi-annual statement that the pace of dividend growth from the companies we own, although creditable
at 19%, is a lesser amount than the uplift in borrowing costs arising from an increase in net debt from £4.1m to £4.5m,
a rise in Sterling interest rates from 5.2% to 5.9% and higher fund expenses. Thus, the Company's revenue pre-tax
profit declined by 19% and net profit by 20%. As the Directors view the rise in borrowing costs as temporary we have
decided to pay a higher dividend than our dividend policy would have otherwise entailed, of £1.75 unchanged from last
year.
* Adjusted to include dividends
R M Swire
Chairman
4 June 2007
Investment Manager's Report
As the Chairman makes the point in his statement, this was an encouraging year for us, with good news for the portfolio
of the Lindsell Train Investment Trust (LTIT) and for the business of Lindsell Train Limited (LTL). As shareholders
know well, the linkage between the Company and its investment manager, bound by the former's 25.0% stake in the latter,
offers valuable feedback effects - if things are going well. Competitive investment performance from the Trust and
LTL's other strategies tends to attract more client assets to the company. The resultant uplift in value and dividends
for LTL brings direct benefit for LTIT, further enhancing its own performance. The linkage was forged over six years
ago, at the establishment of both entities and it has been satisfying to watch the latent value begin to actualise (my
favourite illustration of that value being the comparison of LTL's recent annual dividend of £180 per share to the £100
per share that your Company paid to acquire its stock).
'Begin to actualise' is right, though, because we must expect there to be much more growth to come from LTL, which has,
after all, only recently (post year-end) attained the milestone of £500 million funds under management. The
contingency on that growth is, of course, the fate of LTL's various investment track records - but here is perhaps the
most encouraging feature of our 2006. All LTL's strategies performed well. The long-only equity products in UK and
Japan outperformed their respective benchmarks - Japan by a very wide margin. Meanwhile, the long/short funds, Japan
and Media, had important up years (important, because we regard the clicking of these two strategies in 2006 as a
signal of future performance trends, not just for the funds, but also related asset classes).
LTIT's interest here arises from its investment in the two long/short funds, in Finsbury Growth & Income Trust (this
company now showing a total return at NAV of 72.0% versus 35.0% for the FT All-Share Index since LTL's appointment as
investment adviser, back in December 2000) and in various individual equities, that, for the most part, are also key
holdings in the funds themselves.
For instance, we see it as significant that last year, calendar 2006, was the first in six that the FTSE Global Media
Index outperformed the mainstream equity benchmark, as measured by the MSCI World Equity Index, with a gain of 24.0%
against 18.0%. For us, this outcome is not just a bounce in a bear market, rather the first flash of a new bull market
for Media and Technology assets. These two sectors have three important things going for them. They are still unloved
- after the apocalypse visited upon them between 2000/3. They can be demonstrated to be statistically undervalued,
relative to their history and other sectors. Finally and most important, those Media and Technology companies blessed
by the ownership of strategically important properties have a terrific growth opportunity. LTIT captures this promise
not only via its holding in the Global Media Fund, up 25.6% in 2006 (in US Dollars) and now annualising returns of 9.6%
since launch, but through its stakes in Dow Jones, eBay, Nintendo, Pearson, Reed Elsevier and Reuters (all of which are
held in the Media Fund too).
Few sights are less edifying than an investment manager crowing about a single stock success, because such gloating
invites Nemesis to come knocking, but we cannot resist the Chairman's invitation to discuss Nintendo. It can best be
analysed as a media company, we think, creating entertainment software, enjoyed exclusively on its own platforms. But
Nintendo is a media company at the cusp of advances in technology and internet. Technology makes Nintendo games more
fun, while wireless Internet allows them to be played by more people in more places. This concatenation of content,
distribution and innovation has resulted in an explosion of the company's cash flows and dividends - this year's
distribution is 7 times higher than that of ten years ago. Conceptually, we do not understand why Nintendo's shares
still offer a dividend yield higher than that of the average Japanese company - given the superiority of its business
economics and growth opportunity. A dividend yield relative of 0.75 for Nintendo (25.0% lower than the market's own
yield) would imply a share price today of Y84,850, or upside of another double. Combining LTIT's direct holding in
Nintendo with those of the Media and Japan funds (but excluding the additional shares held in segregated accounts
managed by LTL) produces a look-through exposure to the Company of 11.2%. If we are right, LTIT is onto a big winner.
The anomaly of Nintendo's dividend yield, relative to the market average, is symptomatic, we think, of a wider
mispricing in the Japanese stock market. There, as a simple proposition, the worst companies tend to have the lowest
dividend yields - in contrast to the West, where investors often require a high starting income return from low-quality
equity assets. This matters for our Japan strategy, which has begun to deliver attractive returns - for three reasons.
First, dividend growth from our favoured Japanese companies has accelerated - up 33% across the portfolio last year.
Next, investors in Japan seem to be valuing equity dividend streams in a more rational fashion - leading to a shift in
relative value between good and bad businesses, in favour of the former, which is where our portfolios are
concentrated. Finally, the export-oriented Japanese economy and its stock market are highly sensitive to global
consumer demand. The US economy is incontrovertibly slowing, to the anticipated detriment of the profits of Japanese
industrial cyclical companies - to the benefit of a number of our short positions in our long/short fund.
Tangentially, if this US slowdown takes grip, we expect LTIT's holdings in government bonds and preference shares to
deliver improved capital performance, after an admittedly disappointing return in 2006. Government bond holdings have
declined to 15%, as a result of disposal and relatively poor performance.
After the period end, we have continued to add to the holding in Cadbury Schweppes, 9.3% of NAV, as this report is
written. We do so because we see the initial leap in its share price - after the announcement of Peltz's interest and
Cadbury's response, to break itself in two - as just the beginning. In many ways the company is a classic Lindsell
Train investment - durable, cash-generative, with an obvious growth opportunity (in Cadbury's case, the Emerging
Markets). Successive generations of its board have nurtured Cadbury's wonderful brand portfolio and if the full
strategic value of those decades of effort is to be crystallised in the coming months we hope it will be at a suitably
elevated valuation. Sometimes we worry that British institutional investors would sell out their own grandmothers for
a cup of tea - and their relative absence from Cadbury's shareholder register suggests to us that many do not
understand how valuable the cash flow generated from inflation-proofed brands can be. For our part, it is unthinkable
that there could be any change of control below £10.00 per share. With Cadbury trading at £6.60, that makes for still
significant margin of safety as new capital is committed, we believe.
Your Company remains geared, to the tune of £4.5m, or 14.2% of net assets. Our thinking about these borrowings also
remains unchanged. We are keen to use the powers, but only when we identify investment assets, or a specific
investment opportunity, where we judge the likely short-term return to exceed the cost of the borrowed capital. In
practice, this means we look for safe and high income or dividend yields, or 'special situations', typically takeovers,
where we expect to arbitrage a meaningful annualised return. For several years, we have maintained a holding in HBOS
preference shares, where the running dividend yield has comfortably covered our interest costs. This asset has not
performed well over the last 12 months, as Sterling interest rates have risen, but could generate attractive returns,
once the rate cycle turns. As noted in the preceding paragraph, we have added to the holding in Cadbury Schweppes,
consciously using borrowed money to do so - expecting big and quick returns.
N Train
Investment Manager
Lindsell Train Limited
4 June 2007
Income Statement
Year ended Year ended
31 March 2007 31 March 2006
Revenue Capital Total Revenue Capital Total
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Gains on investments - 3,954 3,954 - 3,512 3,512
Exchange differences - (159) (159) - 61 61
Gains on forward currency - 116 116 - 43 43
contracts
Income 1,108 - 1,108 961 - 961
Investment management fees (265) - (265) (141) - (141)
Other expenses (154) (1) (155) (132) (3) (135)
Net return before finance costs 689 3,910 4,599 688 3,613 4,301
and tax
Interest payable and similar (292) - (292) (197) - (197)
charges
Return on ordinary activities 397 3,910 4,307 491 3,613 4,104
before tax
Tax on ordinary activities (8) - (8) (4) - (4)
Return on ordinary activities
after tax for the financial 389 3,910 4,299 487 3,613 4,100
year
Return per Ordinary Share £1.95 £19.55 £21.50 £2.43 £18.07 £20.50
All revenue and capital items in the above statement derive from continuing
operations.
The total columns of this statement represent the profit and loss accounts of
the Company.
A Statement of Total recognised Gains and Losses is not required as all gains
and losses of the Company have been reflected in the
above statement.
No operations were acquired or discontinued during the year.
Reconciliation of Movements in Shareholders'
Funds
Capital Capital
Share Special reserve reserve Revenue
capital reserve realised unrealised reserve Total
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
For the year ended 31 March 2007
Net assets at 31 March 2006 150 19,850 1,226 5,496 881 27,603
Return on ordinary activities after tax for
the financial year - - (51) 3,961 389 4,299
Dividends paid - - - - (350) (350)
Net assets at 31 March 2007 150 19,850 1,175 9,457 920 31,552
For the year ended 31 March 2006
Net assets at 31 March 2005 150 19,850 1,124 1,985 704 23,813
Return on ordinary activities after tax for
the financial year - - 102 3,511 487 4,100
Dividends paid - - - - (310) (310)
Net assets at 31 March 2006 150 19,850 1,226 5,496 881 27,603
Balance Sheet
As at 31 March 2007 As at 31 March 2006
£'000 £'000 £'000 £'000
Fixed assets
Investments held at fair value through 35,869 31,442
profit and loss
Current assets
Debtors 1,000 1,032
Cash at bank 1,520 1,467
2,520 2,499
Creditors: amounts falling due within one (6,837) (6,338)
year
Net current liabilities (4,317) (3,839)
Net assets 31,552 27,603
Capital and reserves
Called up share capital 150 150
Special reserve 19,850 19,850
20,000 20,000
Capital reserve - realised 1,175 1,226
Capital reserve - unrealised 9,457 5,496
Revenue reserve 920 881
Equity shareholders' funds 31,552 27,603
Net asset value per Ordinary Share £157.76 £138.01
Cash Flow Statement
Year ended 31 March 2007 Year ended 31 March 2006
£'000 £'000
Net cash inflow from operating activities 849) 710)
Servicing of finance (286) (185)
Taxation (8) (4)
Financial investment (482) (2,716)
73 (2,195)
Equity dividends paid (350) (310)
Decrease in cash in the year (277) (2,505)
Reconciliation of net cash flow to movement in
net debt
Decrease in cash in the year (277) (2,505)
Exchange movements (159) 61)
Opening net debt (4,037) (1,593)
Closing net debt (4,473) (4,037)
Notes
This preliminary statement is not the Company's statutory accounts. The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 March
2006, have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and received an audit report which was unqualified, did not
include a reference to any matters to which the auditors drew attention by way of emphasis without qualifying the
report, and did not contain statements under s237(2) and 237(3) of the Companies Act 1985. The statutory accounts for
the year ended 31 March 2007 have not yet been approved, audited or filed.
For consistency, this preliminary announcement of results has been prepared on the same basis of preparation as the
previous year's published annual accounts.
The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 March 2007 will be finalised on the basis of the financial information
presented by the Directors in this preliminary announcement and will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies
following the Company's Annual General Meeting. Copies will be sent to shareholders shortly and will also then be
available from the Company's Registered Office at Springfield Lodge, Colchester Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 5PW.
The net asset value per Ordinary Share is based on net assets of £31,552,000 (2006: £27,603,000 ) and on 200,000
Ordinary Shares (2005: 200,000), being the number of Ordinary Shares in issue at the year end.
Income
Total income comprises: Dividends £788,000 (2006: £643,000) and Interest £320,000 (2006: £318,000).
Return per Ordinary Share
Total return:
The calculation of the total return per Ordinary Share is based on total return on ordinary activities after taxation
of £4,299,000 (2006 restated: £4,100,000) divided by 200,000 Ordinary Shares (2005: 200,000) being the weighted average
number of Ordinary Shares in issue during the year.
Revenue return:
The calculation of revenue return per Ordinary Share is based on net revenue on ordinary activities after taxation of
£389,000 (2006: £487,000) divided by 200,000 Ordinary Shares (2006: 200,000) being the weighted average number of
Ordinary Shares in issue during the year.
Capital return:
The calculation of the capital return per Ordinary Share is based on net capital profit for the financial year of
£3,910,000 (2006: £3,613,000) divided by 200,000 Ordinary Shares (2006: 200,000) being the weighted average number of
Ordinary Shares in issue during the year.
It is the intention of the Directors to conduct the affairs of the Company so that it satisfies the conditions for
approval as an investment trust company set out in section 842 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988.
The Directors have proposed a final dividend of 175p (2006: 175p) per Ordinary Share which, if approved by
shareholders, will be payable on 25 July 2007 to shareholders registered on 6 July 2007, (ex-dividend 4 July 2007).
Phoenix Administration Services Limited
Company Secretary
4 June 2007
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