During August, the Trust’s net asset value (NAV) grew 5.0%, outperforming a 2.7% rise in its FTSE All-Share benchmark and a 4.4% rise in its peer group, the AIC UK All Companies Sector.¹ At the stock level, this outperformance was driven by a combination of takeover interest from private equity companies in software company Blue Prism, as well as good trading updates from companies such as Marks & Spencer, Vertu Motors and Next Fifteen Communications. We continue to be encouraged by what we are hearing from companies in trading updates; in many cases sales and earnings have recovered faster following the pandemic than management teams and the market were anticipating.

While the Trust’s NAV grew well during the month, the share price increase of 1.4% underperformed the rise in NAV of 5.0%, causing the discount to NAV to widen. We are not aware of a large seller of the Trust, and some (although not all) Trusts in the peer group have also seen their discounts widen during the quieter summer months. The Board continues to regularly review share buyback opportunities where they would be marginally enhancing to existing shareholders, and during the previous financial year bought back shares when the discount was greater than 15%. The Board continues to believe, however, that the best route to eroding the discount over time is investment outperformance.

 

 

¹ Source: Henderson Opportunities Trust factsheet and Morningstar as at 31.08.2021

Net Asset Value (NAV) Expand

The total value of a fund’s assets less its liabilities.

Private equity Expand

Investment into a company that is not listed on a stock exchange. Like infrastructure investing, it tends to involve investors committing large amounts of money for long periods of time.

Discrete year performance % change (updated quarterly)	Share price	NAV
30/06/2020 to 30/06/2021	73.2	63.7
28/06/2019 to 30/06/2020	-16.8	-16.2
29/06/2018 to 28/06/2019	-7.1	-7.4
30/06/2017 to 29/06/2018	22.3	21.9
30/06/2016 to 30/06/2017	27.3	27.8

All performance, cumulative growth and annual growth data is sourced from Morningstar.