Schroder AsiaPacific

SDP’s pragmatic approach has driven another year of outperformance…

Schroder AsiaPacific

SDP has delivered strong long-term outperformance driven by stock selection…

Economic and Political Monthly Roundup January 2023

A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairs and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell any of the companies mentioned.

Economic and Political Monthly Roundup January 2023

A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairs and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell any of the companies mentioned.

Schroder AsiaPacific

SDP invests in quality companies to take advantage of the long-term secular growth opportunities in Asia…

Schroder AsiaPacific Fund - Successfully selecting winners across Asia

Schroder AsiaPacific Fund (SDP) invests in companies located and trading primarily in China, South Korea, Taiwan, India and South-East Asia. SDP recently celebrated its 25-year anniversary and was managed by Mathew Dobbs from inception until his retirement in March 2021. However, its new manager, Richard Sennitt, worked closely with Dobbs for 13 years and will maintain the same investment strategy and process: a bottom-up, stock-picking investment approach, which aims to achieve growth in excess

Schroder AsiaPacific - Overview

Schroder Asia Pacific (SDP) offers access to a portfolio of high quality Asian companies selected for their long-term growth potential. The manager, Matthew Dobbs, tells us he is focused on finding the highest quality companies, in terms of both financials and corporate governance. He has constructed a portfolio of the most attractive stocks, bought when he thinks they are being undervalued by the market, with a long-term view and little attention paid to short-term market movements. As we discu

Dangerous ground:the perils of timing the market

Anyone who takes a strong interest in financial markets sometimes feels the pull of market timing. It is seductive to imagine yourself a canny trader, buying or selling positions just before the market shifts, trading investments daily and beating the herd with superior analysis and instincts. We can add to the existing research suggesting this is a bad idea, and that taking a long-term view of your investments is the way to go. We looked at investment trusts that have outperformed over the past

Best in class

Today, we introduce our investment trust ratings. According to the quantitative screens we have selected in an attempt to highlight the best performers in the closed-ended universe, the trusts discussed here have been the best in their classes over the last five years. We have selected trusts using two different sets of criteria, aiming to identify the top performers for capital growth and for achieving a high and growing income. There are many rating systems for open-ended funds, but no quantit

Schroder AsiaPacific Fund - Overview

Schroder AsiaPacific aims to generate long-term capital growth from a portfolio of emerging Asian equities. The trust has performed well in recent years, with top quintile returns over three and five-year periods; this has been helped by exposure to the technology and consumer discretionary sectors, which the manager, Matthew Dobbs, believes are benefitting from and shaping secular growth trends. Matthew has run the trust since it was launched in 1995, making him one of the most experienced fund

Information overload

Emerging markets remain a highly attractive place to invest for the longer term, despite the difficult period for the region this year. We do not believe that the current travails amount to a broad-based crisis in the region. In fact, many of the recent headlines surrounding emerging markets are irrelevant to long-term investor as they are focused on small and insignificant markets. We believe the index has done poorly mainly thanks to specific issues with individual countries and regions rather

Schroder AsiaPacific Fund - Overview

Schroder AsiaPacific Fund has an excellent track record and is led by a highly-experienced manager in the form of veteran fund manager Matthew Dobbs, who has more than thirty five years’ experience in Asian equities. Matthew tries to ensure that he doesn’t pay “over the odds” for his stocks, and this focus on valuation gives the trust a more conservative feel when compared to its more extreme growth peers. In Matthew’s view, Asian investors tend to focus on higher growth stocks, which means lowe

What now for Asia?

It is incredibly difficult to recognise entry points for markets or stocks: there is always a good reason for something to seem cheap but at the same time, a plausible cause for it to get cheaper. With threats of a trade war echoing in our ears and investors smarting from an unexpectedly tough first quarter, media attention has focused on the potential ‘buying opportunity’ in Asian equities, and against that backdrop we consider the outlook. As we show in the graph below, global stocks with the

Full steam ahead?

With strong performance from most emerging markets, smaller companies and technology, 2017 will be remembered as the year that rewarded those investors willing to take some risk with their investments. Despite initial worries about political risk stemming from Brexit and upcoming European elections, equity markets in general soared. For the first time in recorded history the S&P 500 made gains in every month of the calendar year, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index ended the year up 30.55% (in sterl

Morning Note – 22 April 2024

Benefits of scale set to materialise

Frenkel Topping - Resilient with strong growth potential

FY 2023 was a challenging year for Frenkel with higher interest rates encouraging clients to place money into lower margin money market funds. Despite this, sales grew +32% (supported by recurring revenue +9% and +51% in non-recurring), EBIT margins remained strong at 22% and adj. EPS grew +17% (taking into account the higher number of shares). FY 2024 has seen a solid start to transactional business and there is a strong pipeline of new FUM opportunities both of which support further growth. Wi

LSL Property Services (LSL LN) - Transformation & market recovery

2023 results are, as indicated in its February pre-close update, “slightly ahead of market expectations”. Current trading continues to improve, with 1Q24 underlying operating profit up yoy, “reflecting the benefits of the Group’s transformation programme completed in 2023 as well as improving market conditions.” With net cash of £35m at end 2023, the Board approved 7.4p final DPS and £7m buy back.

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

S&U - PBT ahead, encouraging volume trends

S&U reported FY24 PBT of £33.6m, down from £41.4m in FY23 on higher funding and regulatory costs and higher impairments in Advantage in H2. PBT was 2% ahead of our forecast as stronger revenues – up 12% to £115.4m – and better costs offset higher-than-expected impairments. Net receivables grew to a record at both Advantage and Aspen and management noted particular strength in Q4 and a good trading environment in the current year. Having absorbed a significant rise in funding cost as well as addi

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

Hardman & Co Insight: 2023 was an annus horribilis for Quoted UK Infrastructure and Renewable Energy

The focus of Hardman & Co Research is on the nine quoted Infrastructure Investment Companies (IICs) and on the 22 Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds (REIFs): the stocks analysed are all members of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). We are updating our publication of January 2023, assessing both the lacklustre share price performances during 2023 and the key issues, including interest rates, inflation and power prices. As a 31-strong group, its combined market capitalisation is no

Foresight Solar Fund - Termination of coverage

Edison Investment Research is terminating coverage on ABC Arbitrage (ABCA), paragon (PGN), Foresight Solar Fund (FSFL), Kendrion (KENDR), Lithium Power International (LPI), Triple Point Energy Transition (TENT), 4iG (4IG), e-therapeutics (ETX), Pharnext (ALPHA) and Shield Therapeutics (STX). Please note you should no longer rely on any previous research or estimates for this company. All forecasts should now be considered redundant. Previously published reports can still be accessed via our web

LIBERUM: PensionBee: Strong start to the new financial year

International Public Partnerships - Consistently and responsibly delivering

International Public Partnerships’ (INPP’s) FY23 results show that it continues to deliver consistent and predictable returns for investors, while delivering environmental and social benefits for the individuals and communities that are served by its assets. Despite this strong performance and a substantial need for private infrastructure funding, the macroeconomic environment has weighed on INPP’s share price, in common with the wider sector. Regardless, attractive returns are available from th

LIBERUM: NewRiver: Q4 trading update: Continued operational momentum

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.

Witan

Business as usual for WTAN’s executive team, while the board reviews investment management arrangements…

LIBERUM: PayPoint: On track for £100m of EBITDA in FY 26