IIT.L Regulatory News (IIT)

The following is the unaudited preliminary statement of annual results for the year to 30 November 2021 which was approved by the board on 13 January 2022.

Over the year to 30 November 2021, our company produced a net asset value (NAV) total return of 14.4%. Over the same period, theoretical investments in the FTSE All-Share Index and the FTSE World Index would have produced total returns of 17.4% and 22.3% respectively. This disappointing result is the product of very poor performance in the last ten weeks of our year, over which period we underperformed the FTSE All-Share Index by more than 7%. It is too early to offer a confident assessment of how much of this underperformance is attributable to fundamental developments at our holdings, but our current impression is that a change in market sentiment was an important element behind it.

The resulting decline in the popularity of our shares saw the discount move up from 7.7% at 30 November 2020 to 12.0% at 30 November 2021, producing a share price total return of 9.3%.

In general, the year 2021 was one of strong recovery for the world economy, although the Covid-19 pandemic continued to cast a long shadow over areas such as the travel industry. The speed of the recovery exposed capacity constraints in the shipping industry, which led to spectacular inflation in freight rates and a general disruption of supply lines. With further pressure from energy prices, and expansive monetary policy, inflation has been, and continues to be, much stronger than many had expected. Central banks would normally have been expected to react to these developments by tightening policy to a greater extent than they have, but fears over the robustness of the recovery in the face of regular mutations of the virus have stayed their hands. Investors have applauded this policy stance and markets have performed strongly.

The one major change in the industrial distribution of the portfolio was the emergence of the Business Services sector as our second biggest on the back of purchases of Bytes Technology and Big Technologies (both through initial public offerings) and strong share price performances from all three of our holdings. Our cash balances at 30 November 2021 amounted to 12.5%, down from 19.2% at 30 November 2020. Further comments on the portfolio can be found in the Managing Director's Report below.

Our performance over the last four years has not been good, but earlier triumphs mean that our long term record still bears comparison: for the period from inception in October 2000 to 30 November 2021, we produced an NAV total return of 861%, equivalent to a rate of roughly 11.4% per annum, of which 2.9% per annum can be offset by RPI inflation. By comparison, the notional return available from the FTSE All-Share Index over the period amounted to 183%, or 5.1% per annum.

Revenue earnings per share for the year were 9.61p (6.09p in 2020). With the reversion to our traditional practice of holding our AGM in March, we are proposing a final dividend of 5p, giving a regular dividend of 8p (8p in 2020). We are also declaring a special dividend of 1p to give a total dividend for the year of 9p (8p in 2020). Both will be paid on 8 April with an ex-dividend date of 10 March.

Our ongoing charges ratio fell from 0.27% to 0.24%. This maintains our position as one of the lowest cost - if not the lowest cost - actively managed investment trusts.

We have again been active in buying in our own shares: over the year we bought in rather over 1.3m shares at an average discount of 11.7%. We intend to continue the practice whenever we consider it to be in the interests of continuing shareholders.

Despite the disappointing performance of the portfolio, we remain pleased with the quality of its constituents. Most of them are trading well and those that are not are in a strong financial condition. Our chief concerns are not with our businesses but with the level of stockmarkets generally and with the risk that central banks may be misjudging the possibility of more durable inflation than they are currently anticipating.

We are currently planning to hold the AGM in the offices of Baillie Gifford at Calton Square at 4.30pm on 24 March 2022. It will help our planning if we know how many shareholders are likely to attend, and I shall be grateful if you will mark the proxy form accordingly and return it to the Company's registrars. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible there. In the event that government regulations disrupt this plan, any changes will be posted on the Company's website independentinvestmenttrust.co.uk.

Douglas McDougall

13 January 2022

Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

For a definition of terms see Glossary of Terms and Alternative Performance Measures at the end of this announcement.

Total return information is sourced from Baillie Gifford /Refinitiv and relevant underlying index providers. See disclaimer at the end of this announcement.

Our performance over the year has been covered in the Chairman's Statement.

It has been a good year for our technology holdings. Worth £69.8m at 30 November 2020, they had grown in value to £70.3m by 30 November 2021 after net sales of £15.6m. The two biggest contributors were Herald, which benefited from an excellent underlying portfolio performance, and Seeing Machines, which has been enjoying a sharp increase in interest in its technology after the hiatus caused by the pandemic. Alfa Financial Software and Zoo Digital both staged strong recoveries from depressed valuations on the back of favourable trading news with Zoo being sold on grounds of valuation. FDM's business has shown encouraging signs of recovery, but a sense that much of this had already been discounted led us to reduce the holding. Gamma Communications continued to deliver strong results, but its share price fell disappointingly in the second half of our year. Blue Prism was bid for towards the end of our year. The level of the bid was disappointing, but we had already realized big profits on the holding over the years. The digital services business Made Tech, bought at its initial public offering (IPO), made a disappointing start as concerns emerged over wage inflation in the technology industry.

Two new purchases (both at IPO) and strong all round share price performances led to Business Services becoming our second largest sector. Midwich is enjoying a strong recovery in its business, which was reflected in its share price performance. The relative lack of liquidity in the market for its shares prompted us to take advantage of this and realize some profits. The share price of Bytes Technology, one of the UK's leading software distributors, all but doubled between the time of our purchase and 30 November 2021 on the back of better trading than was generally expected. Big Technologies has developed electronic tags which are currently being deployed to monitor criminals, but which also have potential applications in healthcare. Their tags are significantly more reliable than most other tags on the market, which has led to very strong new business flows. Overall, the value of our Business Services holdings grew from £12.1m on 30 November 2020 to £53.8m at 30 November 2021 after net purchases of £19.7m.

It was a brutal year for our Travel and Leisure holdings: despite net purchases of £13.7m, the value of our stake had only increased from £47.6m at 30 November 2020 to £51.8m at 30 November 2021. Our holiday companies, Jet2 and On The Beach were particularly badly hit as hopes of a lifting of travel restrictions were continually deferred. We believe both will perform well once restrictions are finally lifted, not least because so many competitors have had to retrench. Our computer gaming companies also had a difficult time after their strong showing in 2020. In the case of Team 17 and tinyBuild, trading news was in line with expectations, but Frontier Developments suffered disappointments with some of its new launches. The one bright spot was the café bar operator, Loungers, which traded strongly whenever it was allowed to open.

After a dismal performance last year, our housebuilding holdings showed something of a return to form in the year under review: a stake worth £28.6m at 30 November 2020 had grown in value to £33.6m by 30 November 2021 after net purchases of £0.4m. As the year started many were expecting a subdued housing market in 2021, arguing that the ending of stamp duty relief and the tightening of Help to Buy restrictions would take the wind out of a market widely thought to have over-reached itself in the exuberance of its post covid recovery. In the event, long term structural demand combined with good levels of affordability to produce one of the strongest housing markets in recent years, at least in terms of pricing. Supply remained a problem with many housebuilders suffering planning delays, but all our holdings are on track to produce good results for the year. Their share prices were strong throughout the first half of the year, but then succumbed to fears of rising interest rates. As has often been the case in the past, we find ourselves struggling to envisage the scale of setback to their prospects that now appears discounted in their valuations.

Our renewed enthusiasm for the retail sector has turned out to be at best premature: a stake worth £6.2m at 30 November 2020 grew in value to £19.3m by 30 November 2021, but that was only after net purchases of £19.7m. Motorpoint, the only retail holding at the start of the period, delivered a strong fundamental performance and a satisfactory share price performance as it embarked upon its transition towards becoming a retailer with equal strengths online and offline. Our three new purchases, the online retailers Victorian Plumbing, Moonpig and Seraphine, all delivered disappointing share price performances. In the case of Victorian Plumbing sales disappointed after the end of lockdown; in the case of Seraphine, a specialist in maternity wear, a temporary supply chain glitch disrupted its first half sales and profits, but appears not to have had any lasting ill effects; and in the case of Moonpig, sales and profits above management's predictions (albeit below the levels of the preceding year) were not enough to prevent the share price from falling.

In the healthcare area, good share price performances led us to sell out of Oxford Biomedica at a good profit and to reduce our holding in Medica, which has been a disappointing investment. We also bought a small holding in Synairgen, which is carrying out phase 3 trials on a product which might have a big role to play in treating serious covid cases. In tobacco, we sold out of Imperial Brands at a good profit, but made only a modest return in our holding in British American.

Elsewhere in the portfolio, the strong performance of Ashtead after we bought it back merely illustrated the scale of our mistake in selling it early in the pandemic. Telecom Plus performed disappointingly for much of the year, but came to life when many of its most troublesome competitors found themselves in financial difficulties. We made a further reduction in our Fever-Tree holding purely on grounds of valuation and we sold out of Derwent London at a small profit. Finally, while our longstanding holding in Polar Capital Global Insurance had a satisfactory year, our big holding in Direct Line performed poorly as investors switched their attention to more exciting stories.

Max Ward

13 January 2022

Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

List of Investments as at 30 November 2021 (unaudited)

All holdings are in equities domiciled in the UK unless otherwise stated.

The total column of this statement is the profit and loss account of the Company. The supplementary revenue and capital columns are prepared under guidance published by the Association of Investment Companies.

All revenue and capital items in this statement derive from continuing operations.

A Statement of Comprehensive Income is not required as the Company does not have any other comprehensive income and the net return on ordinary activities after taxation is both the profit and comprehensive income for the year.

For the year ended 30 November 2021 (unaudited)

For the year ended 30 November 2020 (audited)

* The Capital Reserve balance at 30 November 2021 included an investment holding gain of £95,883,000 (2020 - gain of £95,283,000).

† Neither the contents of the Company's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.

None of the views expressed in this document should be construed as advice to buy or sell a particular investment.

Glossary of Terms and Alternative Performance Measures (APM)

Total Assets

The total value of all assets held less all liabilities (other than liabilities in the form of borrowings).

Net Asset Value

Net Asset Value (NAV) is the value of all assets held less all liabilities (including liabilities in the form of borrowings). The NAV per share is calculated by dividing this amount by the number of ordinary shares in issue.

(Discount)/Premium (APM)

As stockmarkets and share prices vary, an investment trust's share price is rarely the same as its NAV. When the share price is lower than the NAV per share it is said to be trading at a discount. The size of the discount is calculated by subtracting the share price from the NAV per share and is usually expressed as a percentage of the NAV per share. If the share price is higher than the NAV per share, this situation is called a premium.

Net Liquid Assets

Net liquid assets comprise current assets less current liabilities (excluding borrowings).

Total Return (APM)

The total return is the return to shareholders after reinvesting the net dividend on the date that the share price goes ex-dividend.

Glossary of Terms and Alternative Performance Measures (APM) (Ctd)

Net Asset Value

* The dividend adjustment factor is calculated on the assumption that the dividends paid out by the Company are reinvested into shares of the Company at the cum income NAV at the ex-dividend date.

Share Price

* The dividend adjustment factor is calculated on the assumption that the dividends paid out by the Company are reinvested into shares of the Company at the last traded price quoted at the ex-dividend date.

Ongoing Charges (APM)

The total administrative expenses incurred by the Company as a percentage of the average shareholders' funds, calculated on a daily basis.

Available cash (APM)

Cash and cash equivalents as adjusted for investment and share buy-back transactions awaiting settlement.

Compound Annual Return

The compound annual return converts the return over a period of longer than one year to a constant annual rate of return applied to the compounded value at the start of each year.

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No third party data provider ('Provider') makes any warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the data contained herewith nor as to the results to be obtained by recipients of the data. No Provider shall in any way be liable to any recipient of the data for any inaccuracies, errors or omissions in the index data included in this document, regardless of cause, or for any damages (whether direct or indirect) resulting therefrom. No Provider has any obligation to update, modify or amend the data or to otherwise notify a recipient thereof in the event that any matter stated herein changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate. Without limiting the foregoing, no Provider shall have any liability whatsoever to you, whether in contract (including under an indemnity), in tort (including negligence), under a warranty, under statute or otherwise, in respect of any loss or damage suffered by you as a result of or in connection with any opinions, recommendations, forecasts, judgements, or any other conclusions, or any course of action determined, by you or any third party, whether or not based on the content, information or materials contained herein.

FTSE Index data

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Legal Entity Identifier: 213800IYHGJTZJ3MO642

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