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  • 27 Jun 19
Polar Capital Technology Trust (PCT) presentation at Mello Trusts & Funds May 2019
polar-capital-technology-trust-pct-presentation-at-mello-trusts-funds-may-2019-27-06-2019
  • 27 Jun 19
Polar Capital Technology Trust (PCT) presentation at Mello Trusts & Funds May 2019
polar-capital-technology-trust-pct-presentation-at-mello-trusts-funds-may-2019-27-06-2019
  • 13 Dec 18
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.

Companies: PCT SMT HSL CTY JAM IPU MWY LWI

  • 13 Dec 18
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.

Companies: PCT SMT HSL CTY JAM IPU MWY LWI

  • 09 Mar 18
Keep calm and carry on...

Investment trusts are often the structure of choice during booming markets. The ability to gear, plus the investment freedom of a closed-ended structure allow skilled managers to capitalise on rising share prices. However, the same has not necessarily been true on the way down, as leverage exaggerates losses and discounts widen. This has often been a time to buy, with market volatility providing a chance to buy into good trusts at knockdown rates. Cherry Reynard asks, has the market rout since the start of the year produced any opportunities for value-hunters? There are 28 trusts that have seen their discounts widen by more than 5%* since the start of the year. This appears a mild reaction to the market sell-off. The FTSE 100 was down 7.5% over the same period. Peter Walls, manager of the Unicorn Mastertrust (a fund of investment trusts), said this first bout of volatility, triggered by expectations of higher interest rates in the US, passed much of the sector by unnoticed: “There was some intra-day volatility in some of the more highly geared, specialist funds. Some of the trusts that had enjoyed strong demand from self-directed investors also proved volatile – Fidelity China, Scottish Mortgage and F&C Global Smaller Companies. However, those hoping to pick up cheap opportunities were disappointed.” There were a number of reasons why investment trusts didn’t exhibit panic selling. Notably, companies proved active in buying back shares. Scottish Mortgage, for example, bought back 3,000,000 ordinary shares at a price of 449.34p at the start of March. Walls added: “The boards are aware that discount volatility is not great for shareholders and did their best to manage discounts through this time.” However, while the rout itself did not throw up any conspicuous bargains, it did exaggerate some existing trends among some familiar investment trusts. The first is the weakness of the infrastructure trusts. There were seven infrastructure trusts among those trusts that saw the greatest discount widening over the period. In some cases, the moves were extreme - GCP Infrastructure saw a 9.4% move, while HICL saw an 8.0% move. 3i Infrastructure and John Laing Infrastructure moved from a long-standing premium to a small discount. Infrastructure trusts have long been seen as a ‘bond proxy’ investment and as such, might be expected to suffer on the prospect of rising rates. However, as Walls points out, there were also other factors at work. Concerns over the collapse of Carillion and an increasingly aggressive stance from the Labour Party on PFI have weighed heavily on investors. This has unquestionably led to better value, with discounts at multi-year highs. The question for investors is whether the rising interest rate environment is reflected in current prices, or whether any further inflation shocks could send prices lower still. Simon Moore, senior investment manager at Seven Investment Management (7IM) believes a more fertile ground may be the UK Equity income sector, where sentiment has been dented by Brexit concerns. He says: “There are three investment trusts which stick out where their price has fallen significantly over the last three months. All of these have Neil Woodford/ Mark Barnett connections (make of that what you will): Edinburgh Investment Trust, Perpetual Income & Growth and Woodford Patient Capital. “These have a few UK small caps that have been in trouble, arguably nothing to do with the market sell-off, but each manager have been vocal supporters of UK listed companies despite obvious global pessimism on UK equities post-Brexit referendum. If they are right - and their judgement calls have often been right in the past - then these funds could be rerated.” Moore points out that both managers have styles that will go in and out of favour. Certainly, all three trusts have moved down a long way. Patient Capital has seen its share price total return dip 10.7% and its discount widen 5.4%. Edinburgh Investment Trust hasn’t seen a significant change in its discount, which is hovering around 9%, but its shares are down 8.6%. It is a similar situation with Perpetual Income & Growth, where the shares are down 7.7%, but the discount remains at around 9.5%. Moore says: “It is worth remembering that Patient Capital is a very different fund to either Edinburgh Investment Trust or Perpetual Income and Growth and is not for the faint hearted. Given the nature of some of the companies it invests in, there may well be more ups and downs to come. But the clue is in the name - investors who can afford to be patient may well be rewarded over the long-term." Walls sounds a note of caution, saying that some of the classic equity income type stocks favoured by these two managers are still seeing a difficult time. Some of the outsourcing groups, for example, remain out of favour with investors. Much will depend on whether investors come to believe in the ‘value’ trade, where this type of stock will revert to more normal valuations. The other sector to see some change in ratings among the recent volatility has been the technology and media sector. Of course, this comes after a lengthy expansion in the technology sector, with companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Netflix leading markets higher for much of 2017. Walls says: “A couple of the technology trusts, such as Polar Technology Trust and the Allianz Technology Trust have moved to a small discount. I wouldn’t say they look like bargains.” Walls suggests that some sectors where there should have been bargains – such as UK smaller companies – have not seen any real movement in aggregate and are certainly ‘not exciting for value-minded investors’. That said, some are certainly cheaper than they were: Chelverton Growth trust has taken a hit, for example. The other weak trust has been the River & Mercantile UK Micro Cap, though this dropped following the departure of manager Philip Rodrigs over a ‘conduct issue’. Overall, most trusts have held up well since the start of the year. This reflects well on the sector, which appears to have grown better at managing market downturns. There are opportunities, but these have arisen from issues idiosyncratic to each sector rather than market volatility as a whole

Companies: SMT EDIN PLI SUPP PCT ATT RMMC

  • 09 Mar 18
Keep calm and carry on...

Investment trusts are often the structure of choice during booming markets. The ability to gear, plus the investment freedom of a closed-ended structure allow skilled managers to capitalise on rising share prices. However, the same has not necessarily been true on the way down, as leverage exaggerates losses and discounts widen. This has often been a time to buy, with market volatility providing a chance to buy into good trusts at knockdown rates. Cherry Reynard asks, has the market rout since the start of the year produced any opportunities for value-hunters? There are 28 trusts that have seen their discounts widen by more than 5%* since the start of the year. This appears a mild reaction to the market sell-off. The FTSE 100 was down 7.5% over the same period. Peter Walls, manager of the Unicorn Mastertrust (a fund of investment trusts), said this first bout of volatility, triggered by expectations of higher interest rates in the US, passed much of the sector by unnoticed: “There was some intra-day volatility in some of the more highly geared, specialist funds. Some of the trusts that had enjoyed strong demand from self-directed investors also proved volatile – Fidelity China, Scottish Mortgage and F&C Global Smaller Companies. However, those hoping to pick up cheap opportunities were disappointed.” There were a number of reasons why investment trusts didn’t exhibit panic selling. Notably, companies proved active in buying back shares. Scottish Mortgage, for example, bought back 3,000,000 ordinary shares at a price of 449.34p at the start of March. Walls added: “The boards are aware that discount volatility is not great for shareholders and did their best to manage discounts through this time.” However, while the rout itself did not throw up any conspicuous bargains, it did exaggerate some existing trends among some familiar investment trusts. The first is the weakness of the infrastructure trusts. There were seven infrastructure trusts among those trusts that saw the greatest discount widening over the period. In some cases, the moves were extreme - GCP Infrastructure saw a 9.4% move, while HICL saw an 8.0% move. 3i Infrastructure and John Laing Infrastructure moved from a long-standing premium to a small discount. Infrastructure trusts have long been seen as a ‘bond proxy’ investment and as such, might be expected to suffer on the prospect of rising rates. However, as Walls points out, there were also other factors at work. Concerns over the collapse of Carillion and an increasingly aggressive stance from the Labour Party on PFI have weighed heavily on investors. This has unquestionably led to better value, with discounts at multi-year highs. The question for investors is whether the rising interest rate environment is reflected in current prices, or whether any further inflation shocks could send prices lower still. Simon Moore, senior investment manager at Seven Investment Management (7IM) believes a more fertile ground may be the UK Equity income sector, where sentiment has been dented by Brexit concerns. He says: “There are three investment trusts which stick out where their price has fallen significantly over the last three months. All of these have Neil Woodford/ Mark Barnett connections (make of that what you will): Edinburgh Investment Trust, Perpetual Income & Growth and Woodford Patient Capital. “These have a few UK small caps that have been in trouble, arguably nothing to do with the market sell-off, but each manager have been vocal supporters of UK listed companies despite obvious global pessimism on UK equities post-Brexit referendum. If they are right - and their judgement calls have often been right in the past - then these funds could be rerated.” Moore points out that both managers have styles that will go in and out of favour. Certainly, all three trusts have moved down a long way. Patient Capital has seen its share price total return dip 10.7% and its discount widen 5.4%. Edinburgh Investment Trust hasn’t seen a significant change in its discount, which is hovering around 9%, but its shares are down 8.6%. It is a similar situation with Perpetual Income & Growth, where the shares are down 7.7%, but the discount remains at around 9.5%. Moore says: “It is worth remembering that Patient Capital is a very different fund to either Edinburgh Investment Trust or Perpetual Income and Growth and is not for the faint hearted. Given the nature of some of the companies it invests in, there may well be more ups and downs to come. But the clue is in the name - investors who can afford to be patient may well be rewarded over the long-term." Walls sounds a note of caution, saying that some of the classic equity income type stocks favoured by these two managers are still seeing a difficult time. Some of the outsourcing groups, for example, remain out of favour with investors. Much will depend on whether investors come to believe in the ‘value’ trade, where this type of stock will revert to more normal valuations. The other sector to see some change in ratings among the recent volatility has been the technology and media sector. Of course, this comes after a lengthy expansion in the technology sector, with companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Netflix leading markets higher for much of 2017. Walls says: “A couple of the technology trusts, such as Polar Technology Trust and the Allianz Technology Trust have moved to a small discount. I wouldn’t say they look like bargains.” Walls suggests that some sectors where there should have been bargains – such as UK smaller companies – have not seen any real movement in aggregate and are certainly ‘not exciting for value-minded investors’. That said, some are certainly cheaper than they were: Chelverton Growth trust has taken a hit, for example. The other weak trust has been the River & Mercantile UK Micro Cap, though this dropped following the departure of manager Philip Rodrigs over a ‘conduct issue’. Overall, most trusts have held up well since the start of the year. This reflects well on the sector, which appears to have grown better at managing market downturns. There are opportunities, but these have arisen from issues idiosyncratic to each sector rather than market volatility as a whole

Companies: SMT EDIN PLI SUPP PCT ATT RMMC

Research, Charts & Company Announcements

Research Tree provides access to ongoing research coverage, media content and regulatory news on Polar Capital Technology Trust. We currently have 17 research reports from 3 professional analysts.

Open
1730p
Range Today
1722/1791p
52 Week
1218/1791p
Daily Volume
166.1k
# Shares
133.8m
Daily Liquidity
(0.12%)
Pension Liability
£0m
Enterprise Value
£1,733m
Market Cap
£2,323m
Latest PE (hist)
Div Yield

Latest News/RNS

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Date Source Announcement
05Feb20 17:48 RNS Top Fifteen Equity Holdings and Exposures
31Jan20 10:38 RNS Holding(s) in Company
08Jan20 10:20 RNS Top Fifteen Equity Holdings and Exposures
02Jan20 09:51 RNS Block listing Interim Review
12Dec19 07:00 RNS UNAUDITED RESULTS FOR SIX MONTHS TO 31 OCT 2019
04Dec19 14:19 RNS Top Fifteen Equity Holdings and Exposures
13Nov19 07:00 RNS Notice of Interim Results
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  • 12 Feb 20
LIBERUM: Plus500* - Q4 stronger than thought

Q4 saw $100m of revenues ex customer P+L. The company will return 100% of 2019 profits to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, has $293m net cash, and may seek targeted acquisitions, new licences and product extensions.

Companies: Plus500
  • 12 Feb 20
LIBERUM: Premier Miton Group* - Net flow stabilisation should be a positive catalyst for the shares

Following a sharp rally in December 2019 many UK listed asset managers have continued to see small share price gains in 2020 with the sector up 4.0% year to date. However, we note that there has been a particular under-performance of Premier Miton’s shares, currently down 17.2% over the same period.

Companies: Premier Miton Group
  • 11 Feb 20
S&U - Quick Take - Seemingly Unrelenting

S&U this morning released another solid trading update, this time covering the 2019 year-end period. The key highlights include the successful transition to the new Advantage CEO, an improvement in transaction levels for both businesses (including another record for Advantage), improvements in the Aspen repayments profile, and an increased second interim dividend, up 1p to 36p. We will reforecast at full year results on 24th March. In the meantime, management are optimistic for the coming year and have re-confirmed that FY20 results should be in line with their expectations.

Companies: S&U
  • 12 Feb 20
S&U - Encouraging year-end update

S&U’s year-end trading update signalled that FY20 results are set to be in line with management expectations. It is encouraging that there has been a post-election improvement in transactions at both Advantage and Aspen, while used-car prices have stabilised or increased recently. Our estimates are unchanged and the shares trade on a sub-10x P/E and yield of 5%.

Companies: S&U
  • 10 Feb 20
Palace Capital*

Pre-letting at Hudson Quarter sets record rent in York

Companies: Palace Capital
  • 11 Feb 20
Sunshine after the rain

“The focus for the next few years is on relatively modest investment and on driving return on assets towards our medium-term target of 20% for each division”. So said John van Kuffeler at the 16 January 2020 capital markets day. After an eventful 2019, 2020 (and beyond) is now all about operational delivery, the “boring” grinding out of profit from a franchise that has seen heavy investment over many years. We welcome this focus and think it will help deliver the 84% EPS growth (2021 on 2018) in current consensus estimates. The accompanying trading statement indicated 2019 results would be in line with market expectations. The shares rose 15% on the day.

Companies: Non-Standard Finance
  • 27 Jan 20
Cenkos: Equals Group Plc -- Strong growth confirmed with B2B pivot

Today's update confirms Equals has delivered a second straight year of material revenue and profit growth, despite difficult market conditions, with a significant shift in the revenue profile towards more profitable B2B customers. Given profit delivery has been slightly lower than expected, we rebase our forecasts to take a more prudent view of trading in years FY21E and FY22E, but we are confident Equals has now assembled the products, infrastructure and management it needs for strong growth.

Companies: Equals Group
  • 13 Feb 20
Equity adjustments offset by reduced capital usage

Although the quarterly operating performance was on track, notably thanks to cost savings, it seems that asset quality has deteriorated markedly. The tangible book value was impacted by heavy adjustments but this was offset by reduced capital usage.

Companies: Barclays
  • 17 Feb 20
Placing closes ahead of target, raising £130m

Urban Logistics REIT (“ULR”) successfully closed its Placing last Friday (14/2) raising £130m gross, materially exceeding the original £100m target. There is scope for this to further increase via an Open Offer/Offer for Subscription and an over-allotment option. The proposed 3.85p special dividend has now been declared. The manager’s incentivisation arrangements will be amended. These are all subject to shareholder approval at the General Meeting to be held on 9th March. The acquisition of pipeline assets is expected to be earnings accretive in the first full year. The market trends for ULR’s target asset class in the small/mid-box logistics space remain supportive of total returns.

Companies: Urban Logistics REIT
  • 08 Jan 20
UK Housebuilding Sector: 2020 vision: Sharpness and clarity for industry prospects

For fighter pilots, it is a minimum requirement. But having 20/20 ‘visual acuity’ (correct term) does not necessarily mean you have perfect vision (as convention assumes); instead, it indicates sharpness and clarity of vision at a distance. It is measured by a Snellen Chart, which displays letters of progressively smaller size and whereby 20/20 means that the test subject sees the same line of letters at 20 feet that a person with normal vision sees at 20 feet (or 6 metres; but 6/6 simply didn’t catch on).

Companies: ABBY BDEV BWY BKG VTY CRN CSP CRST GLE GLV INL MCS PSN RDW SPR TW/ WJG

  • 10 Feb 20
Lok'nStore

H1 20 update – strong trading and another pipeline store

Companies: Lok'n Store Group
  • 13 Feb 20
Strong performance since IPO

Since IPO in October 2018 to end of December 2019 (first full accounting period) AJOT has delivered a NAV total return of +14.3% vs +7.9% total return generated by the trust’s benchmark MSCI Japan Small Cap Index (both in sterling terms). This outperformance has been achieved by a high degree of corporate activity with ten companies announcing share buybacks over the period and three were subject to takeovers. AJOT has enjoyed an average premium rating of 3.5% since IPO and this has enabled the Board to issue a further 34.9m shares via tap issues at small premiums to the prevailing NAV. The company has recently stated that they are exploring further equity issuances to enable the manager to exploit further investment opportunities.

Companies: AVI Japan Opportunity Trust
  • 03 Feb 20
Hardman & Co Monthly: February 2020

We recently published a paper, Share ownership: For the many, not the few, based on a statistical survey of share ownership, produced jointly with Argus Vickers, the share analysis service. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now issued its equivalent survey. This paper compares its results with ours. Although there are, inevitably, differences in the detail, the two surveys reach the same conclusions.

Companies: AVO AGY ARBB CLIG DNL FLTA GDR MCL NSF PCA PIN PXC PHP RECI RMDL STX SCE TON VTA

  • 21 Oct 19
Quarterly Research Outlook Autumn 2019

Following continued delays of a Brexit agreement, few sectors within the UK market have remained attractive to investors despite low valuations. One sector which has continued to outperform despite the political drama has been the UK video gaming sector (henceforth UK gaming), which we are fans of. We believe a combination of sector-leading growth, strong cash conversion and timely cyclical positioning support our positive view on the UK video gaming sector.

Companies: ABBY AMS ANX ARS ATYM AVON BLVN PIER BUR CGS CAML CDM CSRT TIDE CYAN DTG DEMG ELM EMR FPO FDEV GTLY GENL GHH GRI GEEC GKP HMI HAYD HEAD HILS HTG HUR IBPO IOG INDI JHD JOG KAPE KEYS KWS KCT KGH LAM LIT LOK MACF MANO MOD OXIG PCA PANR APP SRE PHC PMO RBW RMM RBGP REDD RSW RNO ROR SUS SCPA SEN SHG SOLG SOM SUMO TM17 INCE TWD TRAK TRI VNET VTC ZOO ZTF

  • 10 Jan 20
LIBERUM: Premier Miton Group* - Q1 tracking slightly ahead

Premier Miton have announced their Q1 AUM, the first quarter following the merger. December 2019 AUM was £11.6bn. Net flows were -1.9% and market movement was +4.6% in the quarter.

Companies: Premier Miton Group