Throgmorton Trust Share News (THRG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - BlackRock Throgmorton Trust PLC Monday said it had a very strong year on both a relative and absolute basis as its net asset value return outperformed the trust's benchmark index, but the investment managers warned a repeat performance next year is "unlikely".

In a statement for the year ended November 30, the trust said net asset value per share returned 40.1% compared with a return of 31.6% for the Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding investment companies) Index, the benchmark. Over the same period the share price increased by 52.3%.

Investment managers Mike Prentis and Richard Plackett said: "Valuations are beginning to look full for more companies and markets have moved up a long way. We think share prices will be driven more by earnings growth in 2014 and further earnings multiple expansion looks unlikely for many companies."

"However, we do expect good earnings growth from our holdings and this should be reflected in share prices, although a repeat of 2013's performance is unlikely," they added.

This performance was achieved through a combination of excellent returns from stock selection in the long only portfolio and the CFD portfolio, where gains on the long CFDs substantially exceeded losses on the short CFD positions.

The company outperformed its benchmark in the year by 11.8 percentage points, after adjusting for fees and dividends paid, which resulted in combined revenue and capital returns of GBP75.5 million for the year.

Based on an average performance fee market value of GBP266 million, this has resulted in a performance fee of GBP3.9 million being payable, the trust said.

"Our investment manager has in the past proved adept at identifying attractive smaller companies with strong secular growth characteristics. This ability, together with the added scope to hold both short and long positions provided by our CFD portfolio, gives us confidence for the future," Crispin Latymer, chairman, said in a statement.

Since the year end the NAV has increased by 5.8%, the trust said in a statement.

The trust's shares were Monday quoted at 314.50 pence, up 0.50 pence, or 0.2%.

By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini

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