City of London

CTY has benefitted from strong stock picking and the structural advantages of investment trusts...

City of London

CTY is an attractive package, backed by 57 years of dividend increases…

The Hardman & Co Monthly: September 2023

Feature article: Equity Income – UK or Global? Should investors widen their horizons? Introduction: ► The UK Equity Income sector (UKEI) is the fourth-largest investment company (IC) sector in the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) universe, with £12.5bn of assets (as at August 2023), and is the traditional home for investors looking for income in the equity market. ► The UKEI not only provides investors with a better dividend yield than the ge

Hardman & Co Insight: Equity Income – UK or Global? Should investors widen their horizons?

Introduction ► The UK Equity Income sector (UKEI) is the fourth-largest investment company (IC) sector in the Association of Investment Companies’ (AIC) universe, with £12.5bn of assets (as at August 2023), and is the traditional home for investors looking for income in the equity market. ► The UKEI not only provides investors with a better dividend yield than the general UK market, but also has a strong track record of dividend growth. Indeed, many funds feature on the AIC’s “dividend heroes”

City of London

CTY’s managers aim to keep as many eggs in the basket as possible…

City of London

Longest (dividend growth), largest (market cap), lowest (charges)...

Staying active

Today, passively managed funds are the dominant owners of US equities, having surpassed actively managed strategies. There are clear attractions to passive investing, such as low cost, diversification, easy access and availability. Additionally, the investment approach is clearly defined. Passive investing is inherently a ‘core’ style of investing because, by using an index-tracking fund, investors gain near perfect exposure to the benchmark by which all other styles are measured. Index-trackin

City of London

Strong relative performance, and improving revenues suggest CTY is bouncing back

Dividends in the time of corona

“A cow for her milk, a hen for her eggs, and a stock, by heck, for her dividends.” This ditty was written by John Burr Williams, a foundational thinker in the theory of investment valuation and one of the foremost influences on another investor also known for his pithy investing wisdom, Warren Buffett. In markets, attention is often grabbed by glamourous and exciting opportunities for investors looking for the next big thing, so it is all too easy to forget that there is a large, more sober coho

Don’t fear the reaper

With market direction hard to call, we consider the case for taking a long- term view in the investment trust sector...

Don't fear the reaper

Investors are increasingly unsure about what to do with their money, at least according to those we speak to. The reflationary rally seems to be over, and since the summer the market has gyrated between value and growth, pandemic optimism and pessimism, clean energy and fossil fuels, et cetera, et cetera… While the general consensus is now that inflation will remain high for a considerable period of time, it is unclear yet whether this is a bullish or bearish scenario. Unfortunately, an investm

City of London - Overview

City of London Investment Trust (CTY) has recently published its annual results, providing further detail on the financial year to 30 June 2021. As we discuss in the Dividend section, the results show that in the past financial year, revenues have improved significantly and Job seems optimistic on the prospects of continued recovery in the current financial year. CTY’s reliable income is a key attraction for investors, which is reflected in its premium rating and steady issuance of shares over

City of London - Overview

City of London’s (CTY) objective is to provide long-term growth in income and capital. The trust has the longest track record of providing annual dividend increases in the investment trust sector. The board has stated that it intends to continue to pay a progressive dividend, which if achieved in the current financial year will represent 55 consecutive years of growth. Job Curtis, CTY’s manager for 30 years, is a fundamental stock picker who prefers defensive companies which can deliver demonst

City of London - Overview

City of London’s (CTY) objective is to provide long-term growth in income and capital. CTY has the longest track record of providing annual dividend increases in the investment trust sector, which now has 54 consecutive years of growth since 1966. The COVID-19 crisis and market sell-off has left CTY underperforming the market over the short term. However stock selection remained positive in the financial year to 30/06/2020 – as it has been for eight out of the past ten financial years. Being gea

Hold fast

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how, that election had us all talking about sterling (well, some of us). Instead now we are hard put not to talk about mass dividend cuts, with Link Group estimating dividend cuts of 47% or more in the UK equity market. Way back in those distant epochs of early December 2019, we appeared to be approaching a greater degree of certainty about the shape of the future in the UK: an election was in the offing which promised to help resolve the outlook for o

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

BlackRock World Mining

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

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

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

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

Primary Health Properties - Strategic and accretive Irish expansion

Primary Health Properties (PHP) has agreed to acquire Ireland’s first Enhanced Community Care (ECC) facility for a total consideration of €30m. With its interim results, PHP highlighted its continued plans for strategic expansion in Ireland, where higher yields support accretive investment in an expanding market. Alongside low-risk, value-creating asset management schemes and accelerating organic rental growth, this represents a key opportunity for continuing growth in income. Our forecasts are

Building a robust platform for growth - FY24 pre-close statement

Against a tough trading background in FY24, Speedy Hire has taken steps to build a platform for long term sustainable growth through the launch of its Velocity strategy. While progress has been more strategic than financial in the year – although we note positive underlying cash flow was achieved - new business wins, the acquisition of Green Power Hire and a transitioned B&Q model all suggest that profitability is likely to move ahead again from FY25 onwards. Speedy’s FY24 pre close statement e

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

Vanquis Banking Group+ (VANQ, House Stock, 47p) - Deep value

VietNam Holding - Introducing redeemable shares

VietNam Holding (VNH) posted a solid net asset value (NAV) per share total return (TR) in 2023 of 15.8% (22.4% in US dollar terms), outperforming the Vietnam All Share index (VNAS), which posted an 11.7% return, and its direct peers. The investment manager remains confident that 2024 will be strong for Vietnamese equities, underpinned by average 20% y-o-y expected earnings per share (EPS) growth. VNH recently introduced a share redemption facility (on top of regular share buybacks), which allows

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

UK Equities: Overlooked, oversold, and over here

In this note we look at the gap between perception and reality in the UK equity market, the opportunities and threats in the economic and market outlook, and the emerging consensus that the valuation discount versus other major markets is at or close to an inflection point. We consider the benefits of UK equity strategies both for income investors and for those seeking exposure to the higher growth potential of smaller and mid-cap companies.

Bigger and better

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