Schroder Japan

SJG continues its strong run of performance versus both the index and sector...

Schroder Japan Growth

Japan could be one of the most attractive countries for investment in 2023…

Schroder Japan Growth

Schroder Japan Growth (SJG) takes a fundamental, bottom-up approach to Japanese equity investing. SJG is managed by Masaki Taketsume, who is supported by a substantial roster of seasoned Tokyo-based investment professionals. His contrarian approach has led SJG to have more of a tilt to value stocks than its peers, while his desire to maximise SJG’s alpha potential has also led it to overweight small caps.

Finding value in a haystack

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

Schroder Japan Growth - Overview

Schroder Japan Growth (SJG) offers investors a portfolio of Japanese equities with the objective of maximising capital growth. Its manager Masaki Taketsume follows a bottom-up process of stock selection, whereby he aims to identify high-quality companies which trade below their intrinsic value yet have a clear path to a positive re-rating by the market, typically by improving their return on equity. As a result of Masaki’s process SJG has a moderate bias to value, especially when compared to its

Schroder Japan Growth - Overview

Schroder Japan Growth Fund (SJG) invests in Japanese equities with a bottom-up process, aiming to generate long-term capital growth. The analytical team look at a variety of quality and valuation considerations. The process centres on the identification of companies trading at a discount to fair value through fundamental research carried out by a team of 11 analysts on the ground in Tokyo, including three specialising in the Japanese small-cap market. The manager, Masaki Taketsume, is based in L

Always darkest before the dawn

Since we last reviewed our portfolio of discount opportunities, an awful lot has happened. The period from October to December saw a new Brexit deal, followed by the UK government winning a parliamentary majority to implement it. Both were bullish for UK and European markets, and led to a sharp rally in markets and a rapid narrowing of investment trust discounts. Globally, the mood was pretty optimistic for 2020; with a growing number of managers and commentators forecasting a rally in cyclical

Schroder Japan Growth - Overview

Schroder Japan Growth (SJG) invests in Japanese equities with a bottom-up process, aiming to generate long term capital growth. The trust typically has a bias towards 'value' stocks and currently has the highest exposure to this style of any trust in the AIC Japan sector. The process centres on the identification of under-valued companies through superior fundamental research carried out by a team of 11 analysts on the ground in Tokyo, including three specialising in the under-researched Japane

Schroder Japan Growth - Overview

Schroder Japan Growth, despite its name, is the most value-exposed trust in the AIC Japan peer group. The managers Andrew Rose (retiring at the end of June) and Masaki Taketsume are based in London but rely substantially on the work of a team of 11 analysts based in Tokyo, covering both large and small companies. The on-the-ground research team do fundamental analysis and company meetings to pick what they think are the best opportunities in the market, and the managers then build their portfol

The Great British Buffett

Research due to be published in the CFA’s Financial Analysts Journal claims to demystify Warren Buffett’s astonishing long-term success, and shows how he has achieved his incredible run of returns. In a nutshell, the Buffett “secret sauce” is leveraging up low beta, cheap, high quality stocks. This approach has allowed Buffett to generate a high information ratio - a ratio used by analysts to show risk-adjusted returns relative to a benchmark - over a multi-decade career, and returns which have

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