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

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.

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.

BlackRock World Mining

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

Morning Note – 18 April 2024

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.

Foxtons Group - FY24 underpinned by market share gains

Foxtons Group’s Q1 revenue grew by 9%, supported by growth in all three divisions as the strategic initiatives continue to gain significant momentum, driven by investment in staff, best-in-class bespoke IT and data platforms. This implies that Foxtons’ medium-term targets are now coming into focus. Market share is being gained in all divisions, which puts Foxtons in a good position as the sales market stabilises. We maintain our valuation of 132p/share and believe that if interest rates stabilis

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

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

Initial Equity Trading Comments - 19 February 2024

M Winkworth+ (WINK, House Stock at 163p) - Solid FY23A results, well placed to grow

Hybridan Research: Sector Review: Artificial intelligence in UK cybersecurity: the human uplift 17/04/2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a double-edged sword in cybersecurity. Whilst new AI models, architectures, and innovations are emerging to protect the security posture of organisations, attackers are also benefiting from deepfakes, sophisticated phishing, and automation of malicious codes. To ensure the impact of AI on cybersecurity to be a net-positive, we need to pit good AI against bad AI. Point solutions enhanced with machine learning: Global cybersecurity has been built with point soluti

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