BLACKROCK THROGMORTON TRUST PLC - Portfolio Update

PR Newswire
London, June 16

BLACKROCK THROGMORTON TRUST PLC All information is at 31 May 2015 and unaudited.
Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income basis
			One		Three		One	Three			Five
			month		months		year	years			years
			%		%		%	%			%
Net asset value (undiluted)#			5.7		9.5		15.5	85.7			117.1
Net asset value (fully diluted)			5.7		9.5		15.5	85.7			158.6
Share price			12.7		14.8		15.0	97.9			164.5
Benchmark*			4.7		6.9		10.4	69.3			96.5
Sources: BlackRock and Datastream #Prior to dilution arising on conversion of subscription shares. *With effect from 1 December 2013 the Numis Smaller Companies excluding AIM (excluding investment companies) Index replaced the Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding investment companies) Index as the Company's benchmark. The three and five year period indices have been blended to reflect this.
At month end
Net asset value capital only:									377.35p
Net asset value incl. income:									381.93p
Share price									330.00p
Discount to cum income NAV									13.6%
Net yield									1.3%*
Total Gross assets									£279.5m**
Net market exposure as a % of net asset value^									107.2%
Ordinary shares in issue:									73,130,326***
2014 ongoing charges (excluding performance fees):									1.1%****
2014 ongoing charges ratio (including performance fees):									1.2%
* Calculated using prior year interim and final dividends paid. ** Includes current year revenue and excludes the gross exposure through contracts for difference. *** Excluding 7,400,000 shares held in treasury. **** Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding performance fees and interest costs for the year ended 30 November 2014. ^Long positions less short positions as a percentage of net asset value.
Industry Weightings				% of Total Gross Assets
Industrials				27.3
Consumer Services				19.7
Financials				19.2
Consumer Goods				9.1
Basic Materials				8.3
Health Care				7.5
Technology				5.5
Oil & Gas				3.7
Telecommunications				0.5
Net current liabilities				-0.8
				-------
Total				100.0
				=====
Market Exposure (Quarterly)
	31.08.14	30.11.14				28.02.15				31.05.15
	%	%				%				%
Long	113.5	117.4				121.9				116.8
Short	13.5	9.8				10.3				9.6
Gross exposure	127.0	127.2				132.2				126.4
Net exposure	100.0	107.6				111.6				107.2
Ten Largest Investments
Company				% of Total Gross assets
CVS Group				2.7
4imprint				2.6
Workspace Group				2.5
Savills				2.4
Lookers				2.3
Rathbone Brothers				2.2
Northgate				2.1
Tyman				2.0
Ted Baker				1.9
Topps Tiles				1.9
Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis and Dan Whitestone, representing the Investment Manager noted:
During May the Company's NAV per share rose by 5.7% on a cum income basis whilst the benchmark index rose by 4.7%; the FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.7%. The long only portfolio increased in value by 5.5%, outperforming the benchmark by 0.8%. The CFD portfolio added 0.4% to the NAV with the long positions adding 1.0% and the short positions losing 0.6%. These individual portfolio returns are before costs.
The major positive contributors to stock selection in the long only portfolio during the month were our holdings in Topps Tiles and Savills. Topps Tiles announced interim results showing like-for-like revenue growth of 5.3% and earnings per share growth of 14%.Trading remains good and management were on confident form when we met them. Savills held their AGM and indicated that trading was slightly ahead of expectations and substantially ahead of the corresponding period in 2014.
The largest detractor from the performance of the long only portfolio during the month was, for the second month running, Northbridge Industrial Services. Northbridge is being impacted by the decline in the oil price which is affecting their loadbank rental operations in Singapore and Dubai and their oil tools business in Australia. Forecasts have been substantially reduced.
Turning to sector allocation, our overweight position in housebuilders and household goods was positive.
Within the CFD portfolio we saw good gains in our long CFD positions in Scapa, Topps Tiles, Savills and Restore, these four positions added 0.3% to the NAV. A number of our short positions were also profitable during the month. However, in a strong month for markets our short CFDs struggled in aggregate. Individual losses on theshort CFDs were modest with the largest four losses on the short positions collectively losing less than 0.2% of the NAV; two of these were involved with some form of acquisition activity.
Within the long only portfolio we added a holding in SSP Group, a leading operator of food and beverage outlets in travel outlets worldwide. We already have a long holding in the CFD portfolio in SSP Group. The holding was taken in a placing during which SSP's private equity backers sold their remaining stake. SSP is a significant business which recently reported interim revenues of £859 million, like-for-like revenue growth of 3.0%, and an increase in operating profits of 35% to £25 million.
16 June 2015
ENDS
Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/thrg 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.