JPMorgan Emerging Markets Investment Trust Regulatory News (JMG)

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE ANNOUNCEMENT

JPMORGAN EMERGING MARKETS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC

(the 'Company')

HALF YEAR REPORT & FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021

Legal Entity Identifier: 5493001VPQDYH1SSSR77

Information disclosed in accordance with the DTR 4.2.2

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Following the strong recovery of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index from the lows in March 2020 to the peak in February 2021, the recent performance of emerging markets has been disappointing with the total return of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index falling 7.5% for the six months to 31st December 2021. This performance has lagged that of developed markets with China leading the markets lower on worries over regulatory intervention in a number of sectors, such as education and gaming, coupled with tightening monetary and fiscal policies. The four key objectives that the Directors of your Company set out are:

· To continue the strong record of investment performance;

· To reduce the discount of our share price to the net asset value;

· To broaden the shareholder base and

· To ensure that the increasing focus on ESG and sustainable investing and its more formalised integration into the investment process are more fully communicated to the Company's shareholders.

An update on each of these objectives follows.

Investment Performance

During the first half of the Company's financial year, the Company's total return on net assets fell 4.1% which outperformed the Company's benchmark index, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index with net dividends reinvested (in sterling terms), which fell 7.5%. The total return to shareholders was minus 3.7%, reflecting a slight narrowing of the discount to net asset value at which the Company's shares trade.

It was pleasing that the Company outperformed the index over the period, given the rotation in markets towards cyclical and deep value stocks and away from sustainable growth companies, which have always been the focus of the portfolio. The net asset value and share price have now both outperformed the benchmark index over one, two, three, five and 10 years to 31st December 2021. As a result, for the second year running the Company's performance was recognised as Emerging Markets winner of the 2021 Investment Week - Investment Company of the Year Awards and, in addition, Austin Forey won Morningstar's Outstanding Fund Manager of the Year 2021. Over five years the cumulative return to shareholders is 98.3%, against the benchmark return of 46.1%. This outperformance shows the significant benefits that can be achieved from investing in emerging markets using active management compared with investments in either passive or exchange traded funds. A review of the Company's performance for the first six months of this financial year and the outlook for the remainder of the year is provided in the Investment Manager's Report which follows.

Discount/Premium Management

The discount on the Company's shares has narrowed marginally from 6.4% at the previous financial year end to 6.2% at the half year end. Over the six months the discount (to the cum income net asset value) on the Company's shares ranged between 4.8% and 9.9%, averaging 7.1%. The Board regularly considers the merits of buying back shares in order to manage the level and volatility of the discount and will buy back shares if the discount is out of line with the peer group and markets are orderly. As shares are only bought back at a discount to the prevailing net asset value, share buybacks benefit shareholders as they increase the net asset value per share. Over the six month period, 9,168,866 shares (representing 0.77% of the outstanding share capital) were bought back into treasury at an average discount of 7.3% at a cost of £12.0 million. This compares to 9,261,304 shares that were bought back in the fiscal year to 30th June 2021 and reflects the discount widening at times during the period.

Broadening the Shareholder Base

The Directors believe that creating demand from a broader shareholder base through continued investment in a number of marketing channels should help achieve the objective of reducing the level and volatility of the discount at which the Company's shares trade and we have made further progress in this objective over the last six months. Over the past 3 years, retail and platform ownership has grown from 23.4% to 34.1% and wealth manager ownership of the Company has increased from 18.7% to 32.7%. Conversely, the institutional share ownership has come down from 57.9% to 33.2%.

Environmental, Social and Governance ('ESG') Issues

Consideration of sustainability has always been an intrinsic part of the Manager's investment approach to assessing risk and reward, directly linking valuation consequences with companies' environmental, social and governance standards. The Company received its inaugural MSCI ESG rating in September 2021 scoring an 'A' and ranked very highly among the Lipper Peer Group. In the 2021 Annual Report, we discussed in some detail how ESG is formally integrated into the investment process. With increasing attention to ESG matters from stakeholders, the Board engaged in an exercise with a research consultancy, White Marble, to better understand and seek insights around investor attitudes, motivations and information requirements, particularly around sustainability and emerging markets. This initiative identified several areas of focus, including content, education and communication, which will be taken forward. The Board is also keen to provide shareholders with additional ESG metrics, as the Manager develops and refines these.

Impact of Covid-19

Despite the UK government's decision in February to lift travel related restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals, Covid-19 related travel bans and the range of lockdown restrictions across Emerging Markets countries continue. As a result the regular company visits to regions have not taken place. However, the investment management team and ESG specialists have maintained regular engagement with investee companies via virtual meetings.

Revenue and Dividends

In the financial year to June 2021 an interim dividend of 0.52 pence per share and a final dividend of 0.83p were paid to shareholders on 16th April and 12th November 2021. The Company is focused on generating a total return for shareholders, in line with its investment objective, rather than any particular level of dividend and, for individual years, dividends received in sterling terms will fluctuate in line with underlying earnings as well as any changes in the portfolio holdings and currency movements.

For the current financial year, the Board has declared an interim dividend of 0.52p per share payable on 19th April 2022 to shareholders on the register as at 11th March 2022. The ex-dividend date will be 10th March 2022.

Board Succession

I have been a Director of the Company since 2013 and have served as Chairman since 2018. In linewith corporate governance best practice I shall retire from the Board at the conclusion of the AGM in November 2022. The Board has agreed that Aidan Lisser will succeed me as Chairman of the Board, Nomination Committee and Management Engagement Committee. The Board is in the process of appointing a recruitment consultant to begin the search for an additional Director to join the Board and an announcement will be made in due course. The Board remains committed to adherence to the Hampton-Alexander recommendation of 33% female representation on the Board.

Outlook

It has been a difficult start to 2022 for equity investors. At the beginning of the year, the fiscal and monetary stimulus of the last couple of years led to worries over inflation and rising interest rates. This unsettled markets and led to a sharp sell off in a number of the high growth stocks that had benefited from low interest rates and led the market over the last couple of years. These worries have recently been compounded by escalating tensions between Russia and the west over Ukraine and rising oil and energy prices. Russia has now invaded Ukraine and the geopolitical outlook is very unclear. However, at times of increasing uncertainty, it is important to remind ourselves of two things: first, that Russia is only a very small part (below 1%) of your Company's portfolio; and second, that the long term structural changes taking place in a number of emerging markets will be more important in generating future returns for your Company. Emerging countries, which in total account for around three quarters of the world's population are in many cases becoming more highly educated and benefiting from increasing wealth and incomes. Whilst there may be further short term volatility, valuations have now returned to levels more in line with their historic averages and we believe that emerging markets will continue to provide a wide selection of interesting opportunities for disciplined stock pickers. There may be periods when the Manager's investment style, which focuses on identifying high quality businesses which are capable of delivering long term and sustainable growth, underperforms our benchmark index. However, this approach has served our shareholders well and, over the longer term, we believe that it should continue to reward investors.

Sarah Arkle

Chairman

2nd March 2022

INVESTMENT MANAGER'S REPORT

It did not seem possible, when the pandemic began two years ago, that we would still be living through it today, even if it does now feel as though we may be moving into the later stages. We start with this observation because so much of what has happened in investment markets during that period, including in the last six months, has been shaped by what we all hope is a once-in-a-lifetime event. From the first sharp falls in markets, to economic shutdowns and the huge monetary stimulus that ensued, there came a chase for growth at more or less any price, and a general inflation in market valuations; but there also came a shrinkage of capacity in many industries, which then led straight to inflation as demand recovered; and that, in turn, is now starting to lead to higher interest rates, and no doubt eventually to the next economic slowdown. Put like this, how ordinary it all sounds: from the extraordinary challenges that the pandemic brought to people's lives has come an economic cycle which has passed from downturn to recovery to inflation to monetary tightening, just as most economic cycles do.

Some parts of that cycle are more naturally suited to our investment approach than others; but a phase in which a rapid cyclical recovery slides into inflation and monetary tightening is not one of them. It is all the more encouraging, therefore, to be able to report on a six month period in which the Company's NAV per share has outpaced its reference benchmark, as shown in the numbers on page 4, in spite of some marked headwinds for our style of investing. Yet the most recent months, from November 2021 into this current February, have been a more challenging period: "value" stocks have kept rising, the oil price has driven energy stocks upwards, and the unpredictable risks of geopolitics and regulation in particular have weighed upon markets and on your Company's portfolio.

Equity markets are always trying to discount the future, and emerging markets mostly did a good job of that in the last two years: in 2020, markets rose even as profits fell, only for 2021 to see profits rise and valuations decline. During this latest half year, the returns from markets were modestly negative, and if you asked most market observers what had really caused that, they would probably give an answer that referred to geopolitics. But in fact the biggest factor in the last six months was the Chinese equity market, which declined by over 20%, and alone accounted for almost the entirety of the 7.5% decline in the broader Emerging Markets index. The rest of the index outside China was more or less flat through this last half year. Was this decline in China caused by US-China tensions? Much less than by China's own policies: the government there has been trying to reduce excesses in the property market, and tighten regulations in several important sectors, including e-commerce, while at the same time pursuing a zero-Covid strategy. It's perhaps not surprising that this has been a challenging environment for many companies, and given the significance of the property market in the overall economy, the slowdown there has also had knock-on effects in a range of other sectors. Now, China finds itself out of step with many other economies, looking for ways to ease policy and stimulate growth, just as the West, and some emerging countries, are raising interest rates and trying to slow inflation.

In the middle of all the noise, what is there for us to do? And how do we think about the future? In terms of our basic approach, we continue as before. The headlines recently may all have been about politics and macro-economics, but we as portfolio managers continue to focus on companies first and foremost. We get plenty of questions about geo-politics, but we think we have more chance of successfully making decisions about the future by thinking about the economics, duration and governance of companies, and how they may translate into returns for shareholders in the medium to long term; and that is where we direct our efforts. This also explains why the portfolio has changed relatively little even in a period of market volatility: put simply, the long term prospects of companies usually change relatively slowly; and so, therefore, does your portfolio. That is not to say that we ignore macroeconomic issues, but we are seeking to make long term investments in businesses that will grow their intrinsic value not because of what the wider economy is doing, but because of what the company can achieve over a time period which may well embrace more than one economic cycle.

If our approach to investment remains constant, the opportunity before us changes all the time. Not only do new listings continue apace in emerging markets, but the corporate world faces continued disruption; and of course share prices rise and fall. We keep in our viewfinder a core universe of businesses which we like because we think there is a good probability that they can compound their intrinsic value at a good rate for a long time. We spend a lot of our time thinking about which companies we should add to that core selection, and which we should discard. But then there is a second decision about valuations: sometimes a great business can be very expensively priced in the stock market, and our most significant transactions during the last six months were to take money out of two investments, Globant and EPAM Systems, where share price returns has been driven not just by strong profit growth, but also by considerable increases in valuations. The businesses themselves remain in good shape, but share price returns, at least for a while, had been drawn forward into the present by that increase in the valuations the market was assigning. On the other side, we are becoming gradually more interested in several Chinese companies as their valuations continue to deflate.

Beyond our everyday activity of searching for good investments, we are also spending an increasing amount of time in the broad field of sustainability. We wrote in the last interim report a year ago that the challenge of de-carbonisation would require the reshaping of many industries, including the asset management industry. We understand that asset managers will be key players in the transition to a zero-carbon economy, and that we will need to redraw the norms for the way we report to our clients, just as the companies in which we invest will need to do in their reporting to shareholders. To enable that, JPMorgan Asset Management continues to make significant investments in two key areas: the collection and analysis of ESG data, and our Stewardship function which shapes the way we engage with companies around the world. This will allow us, in time, to produce more detailed reporting for you, and all our clients, on the ESG characteristics of the companies in which we have invested on your behalf, and we look forward to being able to do that in future reports to shareholders. Meanwhile, within our everyday investment activity, greater focus on sustainability and the need to reduce carbon emissions is producing opportunities in a number of ways. We recently invested in a company which is a global leader in the production of batteries for electric vehicles: demand for its products seems likely to rise strongly in the next decade. And there are second-order effects of carbon transition too: software service companies have commented on the potential business opportunity that carbon reporting may bring: as firms begin to integrate carbon reporting into their financial and operating systems, a lot of software code is going to be needed. So although the challenges facing the commercial sector are going to be considerable, there will as always, be opportunities somewhere. It's important, especially in times of uncertainty and market stress, to remember that in the long run, good businesses are always likely to create value for their shareholders.

Austin ForeyJohn CitronPortfolio Managers

2nd March 2022

INTERIM MANAGEMENT REPORT

The Company is required to make the following disclosures in its half year report:

Principal and Emerging Risks and Uncertainties

The principal and emerging risks and uncertainties faced by the Company have not changed from those reported in the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30th June 2021 ('AFRS') and fall into the following broad categories: investment underperformance; political, economic and pandemic; loss of investment team or investment manager; strategy/business management; operational and counterparty failure and cyber crime; share price discount; change of corporate control of the manager; legal and regulatory; corporate governance, ESG and shareholder relations; and financial. Information on each of these areas is given in the Business Review within the AFRS.

Related Parties Transactions

During the first six months of the current financial year, no transactions with related parties have taken place which have materially affected the financial position or the performance of the Company.

Going Concern

The Directors believe, having considered the Company's investment objectives, risk management policies, capital management policies and procedures, nature of the portfolio and expenditure projections, that the Company has adequate resources, an appropriate financial structure and suitable management arrangements in place to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future and more specifically, that there are no material uncertainties pertaining to the Company that would prevent its ability to continue in such operational existence for at least twelve months from the date of the approval of this half year financial report. For these reasons, they consider there is reasonable evidence to continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the accounts.

Directors' Responsibilities

The Board of Directors confirms that, to the best of its knowledge:

(i) the condensed set of financial statements contained within the half yearly financial report has been prepared in accordance with FRS 104 'Interim Financial Reporting' and gives a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company and of the assets, liabilities, financial position and net return of the Company, as at 31st December 2020 as required by the UK Listing Authority Disclosure and Transparency Rules 4.2.4R; and

(ii) the interim management report includes a fair review of the information required by 4.2.7R and 4.2.8R of the UK Listing Authority Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

In order to provide these confirmations, and in preparing these financial statements, the Directors are required to:

· select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

· make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

· state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

· prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Company will continue in business;

and the Directors confirm that they have done so.

For and on behalf of the BoardSarah ArkleChairman

2nd March 2022

STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021

All revenue and capital items in the above statement derive from continuing operations. No operations were acquired or discontinued in the period.

The 'Total' column of this statement is the profit and loss account of the Company and the 'Revenue' and 'Capital' columns represent supplementary information prepared under guidance issued by the Association of Investment Companies.

The net return/(loss) after taxation represents the profit/(loss) for the period and also the total comprehensive income.

STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021

1 This reserve forms the distributable reserve of the Company and is used to fund distributions to investors.

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

AT 31ST DECEMBER 2021

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2021

1. Financial statements

The information contained within the financial statements in this half year report has not been audited or reviewed by the Company's auditors.

The figures and financial information for the year ended 30th June 2021 are extracted from the latestpublished financial statements of the Company and do not constitute statutory accounts for that year. Those financial statements have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and including the report of the auditors which was unqualified and did not contain a statement under either section 498(2) or 498(3) of the Companies Act 2006.

2. Accounting policies

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' of the United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice ('UK GAAP') and with the Statement of Recommended Practice 'Financial Statements of Investment Trust Companies and Venture Capital Trusts' (the revised 'SORP') issued by the Association of Investment Companies in April 2021.

FRS 104, 'Interim Financial Reporting', issued by the Financial Reporting Council ('FRC') in March 2015 has been applied in preparing this condensed set of financial statements for the six months ended 31st December 2021.

All of the Company's operations are of a continuing nature.

The accounting policies applied to this condensed set of financial statements are consistent with those applied in the financial statements for the year ended 30th June 2021.

3. (Loss)/return per share

4. Dividends paid

1 Represents dividends which remain unclaimed after a period of 12 years and thereby become the property of the Company.

All dividends paid in the period have been funded from the revenue reserve.

An interim dividend of 0.52p (2021: 0.52p) per share amounting to £6,128,000 (2021: £6,188,000), has been declared payable in respect of the six months ended 31st December 2021.

5. Net asset value per share

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.

JPMORGAN FUNDS LIMITED

2nd March 2022

For further information, please contact:

Nira Mistry

For and on behalf of

JPMorgan Funds Limited

020 7742 4000

ENDS

A copy of the 2021 Half Year Report will shortly be submitted to the FCA's National Storage Mechanism and will be available for inspection at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism

The 2021 Half Year Report will shortly be available on the Company's website at www.jpmemergingmarkets.co.uk where up-to-date information on the Company, including daily NAV and share prices, factsheets and portfolio information can also be found.