BlackRock Throgmorton Trust Plc - Portfolio Update
PR Newswire
LONDON, United Kingdom, May 22
The information contained in this release was correct as at 30 April 2025. Information on the Company's up to date net asset values can be found on the London Stock Exchange Website at:
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-home.html.
BLACKROCK THROGMORTON TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003B7ETS1JEDPF59)
All information is at 30 April 2025 and unaudited.
Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income basis
| One | Three | One | Three | Five |
Net asset value | 2.9 | -6.4 | -4.1 | -6.9 | 29.8 |
Share price | 2.7 | -8.0 | -5.3 | -11.0 | 13.7 |
Benchmark* | 2.6 | -4.4 | 0.3 | -7.3 | 35.0 |
Sources: BlackRock and Deutsche Numis
*With effect from 15 January 2024 the Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding Investment Companies) Index to Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding Investment Companies).
At month end | |
Net asset value capital only: | 603.16p |
Net asset value incl. income: | 609.90p |
Share price | 541.00p |
Discount to cum income NAV | 11.3% |
Net yield1: | 3.3% |
Total Gross assets2: | £476.2m |
Net market exposure as a % of net asset value3: | 101.8% |
Ordinary shares in issue4: | 78,071,864 |
2024 ongoing charges (excluding performance fees)5,6: | 0.56% |
2024 ongoing charges ratio (including performance | 0.82% |
1. Calculated using the Final Dividend declared on 20 February 2025 payable on 11 April 2025, together with the Interim Dividend declared on 24 July 2024 paid on 21 August 2024.
2. Includes current year revenue and excludes gross exposure through contracts for difference.
3. Long exposure less short exposure as a percentage of net asset value.
4. Excluding 25,138,000 shares held in treasury.
5. The Company's ongoing charges are calculated as a percentage of average daily net assets and using the management fee and all other operating expenses, excluding performance fees, finance costs, direct transaction charges, VAT recovered, taxation and certain other non-recurring items for the year ended 30 November 2024.
6. With effect from 1 August 2017 the base management fee was reduced from 0.70% to 0.35% of gross assets per annum. The Company's ongoing charges are calculated as a percentage of average daily net assets and using the management fee and all other operating expenses, including performance fees, but excluding finance costs, direct transaction charges, VAT recovered, taxation and certain other non-recurring items for the year ended 30 November 2023.
7. Effective 1st December 2017 the annual performance fee is calculated using performance data on an annualised rolling two-year basis (previously, one year) and the maximum annual performance fee payable is effectively reduced to 0.90% of two-year rolling average month end gross assets (from 1% of average annual gross assets over one year). Additionally, the Company now accrues this fee at a rate of 15% of outperformance (previously 10%). The maximum annual total management fees (comprising the base management fee of 0.35% and a potential performance fee of 0.90%) are therefore 1.25% of average month end gross assets on a two-year rolling basis (from 1.70% of average annual gross assets).
Sector Weightings | % of Total Assets |
|
|
Industrials | 31.5 |
Financials | 24.1 |
Consumer Discretionary | 9.6 |
Basic Materials | 7.1 |
Technology | 6.5 |
Real Estate | 3.8 |
Consumer Staples | 3.7 |
Health Care | 2.3 |
Communication Services | 1.5 |
Telecommunications | 0.8 |
Energy | 0.6 |
|
|
Net Current Assets | 8.5 |
| ----- |
Total | 100.0 |
| ===== |
|
|
Country Weightings | % of Total Assets |
|
|
United Kingdom | 94.9 |
United States | 3.8 |
Australia | 0.8 |
Canada | 0.5 |
|
|
| ----- |
Total | 100.0 |
| ===== |
Market Exposure (Quarterly) | ||||
| ||||
| 31.05.24 | 31.08.24 | 30.11.24 | 28.02.25 |
Long | 114.9 | 111.7 | 111.9 | 117.8 |
Short | 2.3 | 2.7 | 3.4 | 4.9 |
Gross exposure | 117.2 | 114.4 | 115.3 | 122.7 |
Net exposure | 112.6 | 109.0 | 108.5 | 112.9 |
Ten Largest Investments | |
| |
Company | % of Total Gross Assets |
|
|
Tatton Asset Management | 3.1 |
GPE | 3.0 |
Bellway | 3.0 |
Rotork | 3.0 |
Breedon | 2.8 |
XPS Pensions Group | 2.8 |
IntegraFin | 2.8 |
Grafton Group | 2.5 |
Morgan Sindall | 2.5 |
Alpha Group International | 2.4 |
Commenting on the markets, Dan Whitestone, representing the Investment Manager noted:
The Company returned 2.9% in April, outperforming its benchmark, the Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies +AIM (excluding Investment Companies) Index, which returned 2.6%.1
April was dominated by global trade policy with President Trump's 'Liberation Day' announcements of reciprocal tariffs sparking broad market volatility across asset classes. The US Dollar fell, equities fell, and bond yields rose as markets attempted to grapple with the implications for the global economy. The bond market's violent response prompted a 90 day pause from the US administration and market relief. The US also cited strong progress in negotiations with several countries as the month progressed raising hopes that the impact of tariffs would be lower than feared. In the US, the second half of the month saw a relatively strong earnings season, which also helped sentiment. The result was that stock markets fell quickly then sharply rebounded.
It is too early to tell what the exact impact of the tariff proposals will be (or even what the final tariff rates will be post negotiations). Economic data in the month was contradictory in the US, with a large divergence between "soft" survey data worsening and "hard" data remaining robust. Companies who reported largely cited little change to consumer behaviour or pricing so far, but this probably does not yet reflect the post tariff pricing or demand impacts. In the UK, macro data remains mixed but corporate earnings remain robust, particularly in domestically exposed sectors. Bucking the trend of recent months, UK small and mid-caps fared better than large caps, with the FTSE 250 Index up +2.7%, while the FTSE 100 Index fell, reflecting a combination of investor positioning, currency moves, and of course that on average UK smaller companies have lower direct exposure to US tariffs.
Alongside broad market volatility, there was plenty of stock and industry moves driving performance of the portfolio during April. The clearest identifiable theme was the strength of UK domestics, in particular housebuilding (Bellway) and related supply chain (Grafton) as well as property (Great Portland). Meanwhile M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activity was also a feature, albeit this made both positive and negative contributions for the portfolio, and reminds us of the difficulty shorting in the current environment when the whole spectrum of "quality" seems up for grabs from strategic buyers!
UK housebuilder Bellway was the top contributor. Bellway didn't report in the period, but we heard from a number of peers in the sector, which all gave a familiar and reassuring message with regard current sales rates and build costs. From several discussions we have had with Management teams across the sector it is increasingly clear that Labour's action on supply side reforms is already making a demonstrable positive impact on planning permission. The sector more broadly has benefitted from falling 2-year and 5-year swap rates and whilst these metrics are unlikely to be closely monitored by the average consumer (ditto the 10-year) there are signs of more competition in the mortgage market, which the average consumer is much more attune with. UK housebuilders remain a large thematic position in the portfolio and our conviction grows as funding costs fall, sales rates remain resilient, and planning approvals increase. Better still, despite an improving backdrop, this is an industry trading towards historic trough multiples of book value despite extremely depressed industry volumes. We expect a rapid improvement in ROCE (return on capital employed) as volumes recover and a significant tightening in price to book ratios as NAVs increase. Jet2 rallied following a £250 million share buyback announcement alongside a solid trading update, citing encouraging demand for summer 2025. Growth has been partly driven by the launch of two new UK operating bases at Bournemouth and Luton airports. The flurry of M&A, which has been such a dominant feature in our universe over the last couple of years, in most cases having been a headwind to performance, was beneficial for our position in food delivery service business, Deliveroo, which agreed to a £2.9 billion takeover from US listed peer, DoorDash.
April proved to be a difficult month for shorting, with two of the top three detractors coming from short positions. The largest detractor was a short in a facilities management business which reported a better than expected Q4 trading update with upgrades to full year guidance while announcing a new share buyback program. The second biggest detractor was a short position in a UK listed semiconductor business. The company has seen multiple downgrades, and we continue to question its financial disclosure (too much emphasis on bookings growth whilst most other metrics seem to be revised down, such as revenues, profits and cashflows). However, the shares rose in the period on the news of a potential takeover from US chipmaker, Qualcomm. We have retained a short on the hope that no firm bid emerges and also the fact that the shares have moved up on the news. The third largest detractor was identity verification specialist, GB Group, which fell after the company warned that near term growth could be impacted by ongoing global tariff uncertainty.
April was another volatile month and one in which we felt the portfolio performed credibly given the environment. Furthermore, and a change from what has felt like the ongoing narrative for all too long now, it was pleasing to see small and mid-caps outperforming large caps. We don't know the outcome of tariff negotiations or what the end state for global trade will be. However, the companies we have spoken to have all spoken of the increased uncertainty slowing decision making, and therefore ultimately lower activity levels. Some negative GDP impact globally and especially in the US and China should therefore be expected. The range of outcomes for both the extent and duration of those impacts remains very large, perhaps the most uncertain economic environment since the start of the Covid pandemic. Inevitably, with such uncertainty comes opportunity for companies to differentiate themselves (positively or negatively) and the opportunity for fundamental analysis to identify those winners and losers.
Despite all the tariff noise, we think the Company remains well diversified by stock, theme, and industry. We still think the opportunity set is as rich and compelling as we have ever seen and look forward to updating you in due course.
As a result of the ongoing difficult outlook, we reduced the gross and net at the beginning of the month to circa 111% and 105% respectively.
We thank shareholders for your patience and ongoing support.
1Source: BlackRock as at 30 April 2025
22 May 2025
ENDS
Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.com/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.
