Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust - Valuation opportunities in quality UK small caps

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust (HSL) is managed by Neil Hermon, who has been at the helm for more than 20 years. While FY23, ending 31 May, was a difficult year as growth stocks derated in an environment of rising interest rates and bond yields, this should be put into context as the manager has outperformed the trust’s benchmark in 16 of the last 20 years. Hermon believes that there is a disconnect between portfolio companies’ valuations and the strength of their operations as, fa

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust - Weak sentiment outweighing operational strength

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust (HSL) has been managed by Neil Hermon for the last 20 years. He explains that small-cap stock price weakness in 2022 was due to valuation compression and was not a reflection of lower earnings; in essence macroeconomic events outweighed business trends at the micro level. However, the manager believes the interest rate cycle is close to peaking given that inflation is rolling over and the UK economy is relatively weak. Hermon considers the valuations

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust - No light at the end of the tunnel yet

In our Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust (HSL) initiation note in June, we highlighted the strong features the company brings to investment in UK small and mid caps, notably an experienced manager and team, an efficacious process and competitive fees. So far, 2022 has been the second most difficult year that the lead manager, Neil Hermon, has experienced in his near 20-year tenure at HSL and in his 33-year small-cap investing career overall (the most difficult being during the global

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust - A compelling option for UK small and mid-caps

Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust (HSL) aims to maximise shareholders’ total returns by investing in UK mid- and smaller-cap companies. Macroeconomic and stylistic events have conspired to make this a challenging task over the past year, but HSL has strong fundamental pillars in place for long-term outperformance. It is managed by the experienced Neil Hermon together with his established team of Indriatti van Hien and Shivam Sedani at Janus Henderson Investors (JHI), who utilise a rep

Henderson Smaller Companies - Overview

Henderson Smaller Companies (HSL) invests in UK small- and mid-cap companies, seeking to generate total returns. Managed since 2002 by Neil Hermon of Janus Henderson Investors, HSL typically owns around 100 companies which the manager and his analyst team believe offer superior growth potential at a reasonable valuation. Neil builds his portfolio primarily through bottom-up stock analysis, looking for companies which are attractive on his ‘4 Ms’: Model, Management, Money and Momentum (which we

Henderson Smaller Companies - Overview

Henderson Smaller Companies (HSL) aims to maximise shareholder returns over the longer term by investing in a diversified portfolio of UK companies listed on the FTSE 250, FTSE Small Cap and FTSE AIM indices. The manager, Neil Hermon, is a bottom-up stock picker, following a ‘growth at a reasonable price’ (GARP) investment process. This means that the manager considers himself a growth investor, but applies value principles so as not to overpay for the above-average earnings growth he is lookin

Efficiency is everything

Over the last few years, fees and costs have become a lightning rod in the investment world, attracting the scrutiny of regulators, the media and the public alike. Investment trusts, with their independent boards acting partly on the views of shareholders, have been quick to respond. We review the changing fee landscape among investment trusts in 2018 through proprietary analysis, and discuss those which boards have done most to reduce costs for investors.

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.

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

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

Hybridan Small Cap Feast - 16/04/2024

16th 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: Electric Guitar (ELEG.L) Concurrent with its Admission to trading on AIM, Electric Guitar is proposing to acquire the entire issued share capital of 3radical Limited for

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

Jupiter Green

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

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

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