BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust - Long-term outperformance from high-quality fund

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust (BRGE) has two co-managers: Stefan Gries (since June 2017) and newly appointed Alexandra Dangoor (since September 2023). They highlight that Europe is very attractively valued and as the managers seek the best businesses that are based in Europe, investors do not need to have a positive view on the European economy to consider BRGE. The trust has outperformed the Europe ex-UK market over the last one, five and 10 years, and its NAV total returns also ran

BlackRock Greater Europe

BRGE has an outstanding long-term record…

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust - Remaining selective in search for quality growth

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust (BRGE) manager Stefan Gries seeks high-quality growth stocks that he can hold for the long term. The manager prides himself on being an ‘investor in businesses, not a trader in shares’ and stresses that his selective approach of focusing on the best businesses that are based in Europe means that investors do not need to have a positive view on the European economy to consider the trust. BRGE has a solid five- and 10-year record of outperformance versus t

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust - Europe is undervalued and under-owned

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust (BRGE) is managed by Stefan Gries, who seeks to invest in the best wealth-creating businesses on a minimum three- to five-year view. The process has proved successful as the trust’s NAV has outperformed the Europe ex-UK market over the last one, three, five and 10 years. BRGE is one of seven funds in the AIC Europe sector, and its NAV total returns rank first over the last one, five and 10 years. It has also generated very acceptable double-digit absolut

BlackRock Greater Europe

BRGE offers exposure to high quality companies in a region currently unloved by investors, and a recovery could surprise on the upside...

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust - Sticking to successful long-term strategy

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust’s (BRGE) manager Stefan Gries (developed markets, c 95% of the fund) is continuing with his successful long-term approach of being ‘an investor in businesses rather a trader in shares’. He believes that stock market volatility will persist as the extended period of low interest rates has come to an end, with central banks tightening monetary policy in response to higher inflation. The manager is confident about the earnings prospects for the fund’s inves

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust - Planning ahead for increasing portfolio risk

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust (BRGE) offers a broad exposure to European equities. It benefits from two co-managers: Stefan Gries (since June 2017, covering developed European markets, which make up c 95% of the fund) and Sam Vecht (since the fund’s launch in September 2004, emerging European markets, c 5%). The trust’s performance has suffered this year due to the market rotation away from high-quality growth stocks and the write down of BRGE’s Russian assets. Despite this, the trus

BlackRock Greater Europe

BlackRock Greater Europe (BRGE) continues to demonstrate its commitment to high-quality, high-growth equities in the face of near- term stylistic headwinds. BRGE is run by the duo of Stefan Gries, who manages its developed Europe portfolio (97% of its current assets), and Sam Vecht, who manages its emerging Europe allocation. The two have remained largely sanguine over the course of 2022 despite falls in share prices, confident in the long-term potential of their holdings. In fact, they remark t

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust - Process based on a three- to five-year view

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust (BRGE) has two co-managers: Stefan Gries, since June 2017, covering developed European markets, and Sam Vecht, since the fund’s launch in September 2004, covering emerging European markets. The stock market rotation from growth to value stocks and the war in Ukraine have caused a setback for the trust in recent months. Nevertheless, BRGE remains considerably ahead of its benchmark over the last three, five and 10 years in both NAV and share price terms a

BlackRock Greater Europe - Overview

BlackRock Greater Europe (BRGE) follows a highly active approach to European equity investing, able to access companies in both developed and emerging Europe, as well as across a range of market caps. BRGE remains the best performing AIC Europe trust over one, three and five years. This is the direct result of the effective, high conviction, bottom-up approach of its managers: Stefan Gries and Sam Vecht. Despite how turbulent 2021 has been, Stefan and Sam have made few changes to the portfolio,

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust - Philosophy and process driving outperformance

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust’s (BRGE) shareholders benefit from the input from two of BlackRock’s investment teams. The trust has two co-managers: Stefan Gries, since June 2017, covering developed European markets (c 90% of the portfolio); and Sam Vecht, since the fund’s launch in September 2004, covering emerging European markets (c 10% of the portfolio). BRGE has a clearly defined investment philosophy and process, which has resulted in a very commendable performance track record.

What next for European equities?

Despite Europe’s popularity among holidaymakers, it appears that investors prefer sunnier shores. According to The Investment Association, UK investors were net sellers of European equities in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Historically low returns from European equity markets (compared to other regions) and low GDP growth seem to have soured investors’ moods. In this article we will examine the AIC Europe and AIC European Smaller Companies sectors over the last 12 months, to see whether this pessimism is

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust - Consistency in philosophy and approach

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust (BRGE) has a long-term record of outperformance versus its peers and the broad European market. It has two co-managers: Stefan Gries, since June 2017, covering developed European markets (c 90% of the fund); and Sam Vecht, since the trust’s launch in September 2004, covering emerging European markets (c 10% of the fund). While all the trust’s positions are selected following thorough fundamental analysis rather than taking a view on the macro environment

LIBERUM: Plus500: Strategic progress pays dividends

Tatton Asset Management (TAM LN) - Record net inflows

Tatton, the leading on-platform discretionary fund manager (DFM) and IFA support services Group has released a trading update ahead of its results to 31 March 2024, due on 18 June 2024.

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

Ondo InsurTech FY24 Trading Update

Ondo InsurTech has released a brief post-YE update revealing its good progress continued through 2H24 and consequently FY24 will be in line with market expectations.

BlackRock World Mining

BRWM’s managers: we see all the classic signs of high commodity prices...

NextEnergy Solar Fund - Attractive Refinancing

The refinancing of a £135m revolving credit facility and the extension of a similar £70m facility gives NESF firepower as development opportunities for new solar are especially attractive thanks to lower module prices in Europe. They give the fund key financial flexibility at a critical time as it pursues its capital recycling programme.

Resilient FY24, confident long-term outlook

Vp’s full year update highlights sector-leading results, once again benefiting from the diversity of its end markets and the quality of its specialist businesses. With results expected to be broadly in line with expectations, we trim our FY24 PBT forecast by c.5% to £39.0m, a shade below the FY23 outturn (£40.2m). We consider this an impressively resilient performance set against a mixed market backdrop. Under new leadership, a strategic refresh is underway and management is confident in long

Jupiter Green

JGC’s fundamental story continues to show resilience, but the discount remains wide…

Lowland Investment Company - Is the tide turning?

Lowland Investment Company’s (LWI’s) unconstrained, multi-cap investment policy differentiates it from most peers in the AIC UK Equity Income sector. It offers investors broad market exposure, outside of the large, traditional ‘income stocks’ at a 13% discount to NAV. The underperformance of small- and mid-cap companies versus larger peers has slowed and a turnaround would be very positive for LWI. Portfolio returns are already benefiting from acquisition activity, spurred by low valuations, and

The Hardman & Co Monthly: April 2024

Feature article: Steady as she goes, but could be better: A review of investment company liquidity since 2016 Liquidity is the lifeblood of equity markets. The measurement of liquid asset availability to a market or company is a way of gauging a market’s health. This article builds on our previous work, which analysed the liquidity data for non-financial trading companies, by applying the same analytical techniques to the investment companies (IC) space. We analyse liquidity for ICs as a whol

AUM up 30% in FY24, record flows, forecasts raised

AUM jumped £3.8bn or +30% in FY24, reaching £16.6bn on 31 Mar 24, 12% above our previous forecast of £14.7bn. Including 50%-owned 8AM Global, Assets Under Influence hit £17.6bn. Investment performance provided a tailwind, adding £1.5bn to AUM. But our key takeaway from Tatton’s hugely impressive last few years, is that it has designed and implemented a superior offering in platform-MPS with net flows consistently far higher than peers. That leadership looks even more pronounced in H2-24 with net

abrdn Private Equity Opportunities – On the way to greener pastures?

Despite navigating through what its managers considered to be challenging conditions in 2023, abrdn Private Equity Opportunities (APEO) was able to report both positive NAV growth and double-digit share price returns in its recently published annual results. APEO’s discount has narrowed by more than 10% in recent months, so that it is trading on a 28.9% discount currently, narrowing from about 45% last October. These figures were generated over a period that saw a slowdown in activity in Europea

NextEnergy Solar Fund – High- and growing-income opportunity?

NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) is almost 10 years old. Since launch, it has built a £1.2bn, 933MW portfolio of 100 operating solar assets, powering the equivalent of over 330,000 homes, declared dividends totalling £333m, and avoided the emission of about 2.2 Mt CO2e. NESF is on track to pay 8.35p in dividends, with forecast dividend cover of about 1.3x. Share price weakness that has afflicted the whole sector means that dividend translates to a yield of 11.1%, one of the highest in its sector, a

Agronomics - A unique offering in a rapidly developing sector

Agronomics (ANIC) invests in cellular agriculture companies. Since mid-2022 it has placed increasing emphasis on companies using precision fermentation technology or providing contract precision fermentation services, as these appear to have greater near-term commercial potential than cultivated meat and seafood. Agronomics’ NAV has risen almost 100% since the inception of the current strategy in April 2019, and looks set to increase further as the company’s portfolio holdings receive regulatory

Strong H1'23 results; forecasts upgraded