Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust - Valuation opportunities in quality UK small caps

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust (HSL) is managed by Neil Hermon, who has been at the helm for more than 20 years. While FY23, ending 31 May, was a difficult year as growth stocks derated in an environment of rising interest rates and bond yields, this should be put into context as the manager has outperformed the trust’s benchmark in 16 of the last 20 years. Hermon believes that there is a disconnect between portfolio companies’ valuations and the strength of their operations as, fa

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust - Weak sentiment outweighing operational strength

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust (HSL) has been managed by Neil Hermon for the last 20 years. He explains that small-cap stock price weakness in 2022 was due to valuation compression and was not a reflection of lower earnings; in essence macroeconomic events outweighed business trends at the micro level. However, the manager believes the interest rate cycle is close to peaking given that inflation is rolling over and the UK economy is relatively weak. Hermon considers the valuations

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust - No light at the end of the tunnel yet

In our Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust (HSL) initiation note in June, we highlighted the strong features the company brings to investment in UK small and mid caps, notably an experienced manager and team, an efficacious process and competitive fees. So far, 2022 has been the second most difficult year that the lead manager, Neil Hermon, has experienced in his near 20-year tenure at HSL and in his 33-year small-cap investing career overall (the most difficult being during the global

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust - A compelling option for UK small and mid-caps

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust (HSL) aims to maximise shareholders’ total returns by investing in UK mid- and smaller-cap companies. Macroeconomic and stylistic events have conspired to make this a challenging task over the past year, but HSL has strong fundamental pillars in place for long-term outperformance. It is managed by the experienced Neil Hermon together with his established team of Indriatti van Hien and Shivam Sedani at Janus Henderson Investors (JHI), who utilise a rep

Henderson Smaller Companies - Overview

Henderson Smaller Companies (HSL) invests in UK small- and mid-cap companies, seeking to generate total returns. Managed since 2002 by Neil Hermon of Janus Henderson Investors, HSL typically owns around 100 companies which the manager and his analyst team believe offer superior growth potential at a reasonable valuation. Neil builds his portfolio primarily through bottom-up stock analysis, looking for companies which are attractive on his ‘4 Ms’: Model, Management, Money and Momentum (which we

Henderson Smaller Companies - Overview

Henderson Smaller Companies (HSL) aims to maximise shareholder returns over the longer term by investing in a diversified portfolio of UK companies listed on the FTSE 250, FTSE Small Cap and FTSE AIM indices. The manager, Neil Hermon, is a bottom-up stock picker, following a ‘growth at a reasonable price’ (GARP) investment process. This means that the manager considers himself a growth investor, but applies value principles so as not to overpay for the above-average earnings growth he is lookin

Efficiency is everything

Over the last few years, fees and costs have become a lightning rod in the investment world, attracting the scrutiny of regulators, the media and the public alike. Investment trusts, with their independent boards acting partly on the views of shareholders, have been quick to respond. We review the changing fee landscape among investment trusts in 2018 through proprietary analysis, and discuss those which boards have done most to reduce costs for investors.

Facilities by ADF - FY23A Results – Trailer-blazing in pursuit of excellence

ADF released FY23A results in-line with our forecasts and the February trading update. As previously highlighted, H1/23A saw record profits whilst H2/23A was disrupted by the now-resolved strike action. The business is ramping back up at the start of FY24E and returning to normal utilisation in H2/24E. Our newly released FY25E forecasts show that with a full year of business as usual, revenues increase c.20% to £56.8m and Adj PAT jumps c.50% to £7.5m. FCF similarly increases to £7.5m, putting th

BlackRock Energy and Resources Income

BERI has raised its dividend target as secular tailwinds gather…

The Merchants Trust - Celebrating its 135th anniversary

The Merchants Trust’s (MRCH’s) manager, Simon Gergel at Allianz Global investors, is very excited about the number of reasonably priced opportunities available in the UK market. Also, good income generation from the trust’s portfolio of high-quality companies with robust fundamentals enabled MRCH to record another consecutive dividend increase in FY24; it now has a 42-year track record. The trust’s attractive 5.1% dividend yield is one of the highest in the 19-strong AIC UK Equity Income sector

Mercantile

MRC’s performance has recovered, yet the trust remains at a wide discount…

Bluefield Solar Income Fund – Fundamentals shine despite discount

The manger comments that, in common with the other trusts in the renewable energy sector, the last six months have continued what has been a challenging period for the Bluefield Solar Income Fund (BSIF). It adds that the trust’s ongoing fundamental performance has failed to reverse a steady slide in its share price which began back in May 2023. Despite this, it says the company has continued to deliver solid NAV growth and market-leading shareholder distributions thanks to a range of contractual

Arbuthnot Banking Group+ (ARBB, House Stock at 1,065p) - Profitability to normalise in FY24F

Regional REIT - Performing as expected ahead of refinancing

In a challenging market, Regional REIT’s (RGL’s) FY23 operational and financial performance was robust, in line with expectations and previous guidance. Investor focus remains on the company’s loan to value (LTV) reduction and bond refinancing plans, explored in detail in our previous note and RGL will provide an update on this in due course.

Henderson Far East Income - Repositioning to raise total returns

Henderson Far East Income (HFEL) has consistently delivered on its objective to provide a rising dividend. However, like many investors, HFEL’s managers overestimated the potential for a post-pandemic rebound in China. The trust’s resultant overweight to Chinese consumer and other cyclicals led to a fall in portfolio revenues and underperformance in the financial year ended 31 August 2023 (FY23). With a view to improving future returns, HFEL’s board has since indicated an increased willingness t

AGBA - A transformational deal

On 18 April, AGBA announced a surprise deal to acquire 100% of Triller Corp, a global AI-driven social video platform, in an all-stock transaction. Triller is privately-owned but has been independently valued at US$3.2bn. AGBA’s management is using a US$4bn valuation for the combined entity, in which AGBA shareholders will own 20% and Triller shareholders 80%. Triller recorded FY23 revenues of US$45m on 450m user accounts and 2.2m creators but is loss-making. In FY23, AGBA reported revenues of U

Princess Private Equity Holding - Introducing a well-defined buyback policy

Princess Private Equity Holding’s (PEY’s) 12-month NAV total return (TR) to end-February 2024 was a modest 0.6% amid low exit activity across private equity (PE) markets. That said, if the pick-up in global M&A volumes witnessed earlier in 2024 continues, it should support PEY’s exit activity. This in turn would translate into improved returns if PEY delivers sizeable uplifts to previous carrying values upon exits, as it has done historically. In this context, we note that PEY has a good pipelin

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 26 April 24

26th April 2024 A corporate client of Hybridan LLP ** Arranged by type of listing and date of announcement *** Alphabetically arranged **** Potential means Intention to Float (ITF) has been announced Dish of the day Admissions: Delistings: C4X Discovery Holdings (C4XD.L) has left AIM. What’s baking in the oven? ** Potential**** Initial Public Offerings: Reverse Takeovers: 16 April 2024: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acqu

BlackRock Smaller Companies

A focus on fundamentals may act as a catalyst for BRSC to bounce back…

Murray Income Trust - Delivering income and capital growth

Murray Income Trust (MUT) invests in high-quality, mainly UK-listed stocks. It has achieved both its dividend and capital growth objectives over the long term. The trust boasts 50 years of continually rising dividends. It paid a dividend of 37.5p per share in FY23 (ended 30 June 2023 (FY22: 36.0p)), and the board has indicated the dividend will rise to at least 38.0p in FY24. This represents a prospective yield of 4.5%. Late last year the company decided to take action to allow shareholders to a

PCI Pal - +25% FY23 revenue growth, FY24 growth of +28% reiterated

PCI Pal’s FY23 results show revenue growth of +25% to £14.9m, gross profit growth of +31% to £13.1m at a margin of 88%, and an outlook confirming robust momentum in H1 24. The FY23 results are as expected following the August trading update, and FY23 Total Annual Contract Value (TACV) is +23% yoy to £16.4m, with ARR +14% yoy to £12.6m due to £3.1m of contracts in deployment. We expect ARR will increase +35% and +31% to £17.0m and £22.2m in FY24 and FY25, as management lands and expands following

Morning Note – 26 April 2024