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(Alliance News) - Henderson Opportunities Trust PLC said Tuesday it underperformed against its benchmark for its recently ended financial year, as larger companies outperformed smaller ones due to economic concerns and continued Brexit uncertainty.
The investment trust reported a net asset value total return of 5.6% for the year to the end of April, compared to the FTSE All-Share Index, which returned 6.4%.
Net asset value per share as at April 30 was 1,232.6 pence, down from 1.246.7p the same date the year before, but higher from 1,179.4p as at October 31.
The trust's share price at the end of April was 1,007.5 pence, reflecting an 18% discount to net asset value.
Shares in the trust were untraded on Tuesday, last quoted at 1,017.5 pence, having improved since the year-end.
Henderson said that it was a tough period for AIM, as it fell materially in the fourth quarter of calendar 2018 despite a strong start to the year, which was detrimental to the trust as 58% of ts portfolio is invested in AIM-listed companies.
Portfolio-wise, the largest contributor was translation services provider RWS Holdings PLC, as a significant market scale advantage has helped it to generate good operating margins and double digit organic growth.
However, the largest detractor was dubbing and subtitling services provider Zoo Digital Group PLC, due to a decline in the company's legacy packaged media revenue.
Henderson Opportunities declared a dividend of 7.0 pence per share, up from 6.5p the year before.
"The UK economy continues to grow but at a subdued pace. This is in spite of the macroeconomic uncertainties, in particular the fear that Brexit would be detrimental for UK economic growth. Some of this is priced into UK equity prices and accounts for the fall of Sterling and the underperformance of the UK markets since the referendum," said Chair Peter Jones.
"A continuation of open trade across borders with Europe would be positive. There are UK companies that are trading on reasonable valuations and yet have strong growth prospects because of dynamic management teams, and such companies remain the focus of the portfolio," Jones added.