BlackRock Latin American Inv. Trust - Worthy allocation as part of a global portfolio

BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust’s (BRLA’s) lead manager Sam Vecht and deputy manager Christoph Brinkmann remain optimistic about the prospects for the region. Interest rates are coming down as Latin American central banks have been more proactive than those in developed markets in raising interest rates to combat higher inflation, which should be supportive for economic growth and asset prices. Latin America has remained relatively isolated from global geopolitical conflict, enabling t

BlackRock Latin American Inv. Trust - Last man standing – committed to the region

BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust (BRLA) has two managers, Sam Vecht (lead) and Christoph Brinkmann (deputy). They highlight that Latin America has been overlooked by investors and the trust is now the only fund in the AIC Latin America sector. The managers are finding interesting opportunities in the region in their search for companies offering a niche product or service, which have long-term growth potential and are reasonably priced. BRLA offers a broad exposure to Latin America, wit

BlackRock Latin American

Managers’ ambition to take more active positions has so far paid off…

BlackRock Latin American Inv. Trust - High degree of confidence in the current portfolio

BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust’s (BRLA’s) lead manager Sam Vecht and deputy manager Christoph Brinkmann have a high degree of confidence in the positive prospects for the trust’s portfolio. It has an overweight exposure to Brazil versus its benchmark, the MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America Index. Vecht highlights high real interest rates in the country, providing scope for a lower base rate. Brazil now has a more stable political situation, and the manager anticipates that the econom

BlackRock Latin American

Latin America looks set to recover first, according to the managers of BRLA…

BlackRock Latin American Inv. Trust - BRLA’s board addressing the fund’s performance

BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust (BRLA) has a new manager. Effective from 9 September 2022, former co-manager Sam Vecht was promoted to lead manager, while Christoph Brinkmann was appointed BRLA’s deputy manager, replacing former co-manager Ed Kuczma. Vecht says that the world is fractured, with rising inflation and interest rates, corporates struggling to grow and extreme political tension. He comments that these issues are not new for Latin America, while, following the recent Brazili

BlackRock Latin American

BlackRock Latin America (BRLA) offers exposure to the commodity-rich Latin American equity markets, which are flourishing in the current inflationary environment. As we discuss under Performance, BRLA was the top-performing investment trust in any sector during Q1 2022, thanks to the strength of commodity markets and the strength of its currencies boosting corporate profits. Yet despite high commodity prices seeming to become entrenched, the region still trades on a significant discount to its f

Time to change the record

Given none of us can see the future, diversification is a key tool in our armoury when it comes to building an investment portfolio. It would be bold, if not reckless, to own a series of investments that all require the same conditions to succeed. Traditionally there are two major sources of diversification for the average equity investor: bonds and overseas equities. The issues with the stock/bond correlation are well covered (and we touched on ourselves in recent strategy articles here and h

Finding value in a haystack

Non-income value strategies are becoming increasingly scarce, but the holdouts represent attractive near-term opportunities

It’s the end of the world as we know it

We examine five potential themes for investors seeking long-term returns in a troubled and uncertain world

BlackRock Latin American Inv. Trust - Strong start to the year for Latin America

BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust’s (BRLA) two experienced managers, Ed Kuczma and Sam Vecht, remain positive on the outlook for Latin American equities, with Kuczma commenting that the region is ‘under-owned, undervalued and unloved’. He says that the year-to-date stock market rally in Latin America is a good example of how quickly investor sentiment can change, especially given the global environment of rising interest rates. Kuczma points to the move from growth to value stocks, comme

Regime change

Ahead of our spring conference, we ask whether investors need to junk their portfolios and start again

Bargain hunt

We survey the discount opportunities in the market and update on the performance of our Discounted Opportunities Portfolio

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

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

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

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.

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

LIBERUM: Speedy Hire: Weakness in FY 24 but recovery in FY 25

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 22 April 2024

22nd 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: 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 acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radi

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

Foxtons Group (FOXT LN) - 1Q24 IMS shows real momentum

Foxtons Group plc first quarter revenue rose 9% to £35.7m (1Q23: £32.9m) with growth delivered across all business segments. Trading is in line with management's expectations.

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

H&T Group (HAT): Core franchise build, short-term retail noise

In our 15 March 2023 initiation, 'Pawnbroking royalty, with strong, profitable growth', and subsequent notes, we have highlighted the strong market for pawnbroking and why H&T, as the market leader, is uniquely placed to take advantage of these opportunities. These results reconfirmed both, with the pledge book up 28% and net pawnbroking revenue up 36%. Like many in the retail space, H&T faced the challenge of customers focusing on lower-value, lower-margin items in the key run-up to Christmas 2