Portfolio Update

BLACKROCK SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST plc All information is at 28 February 2010 and unaudited. Performance at month end is calculated on a capital only basis One Three One Three Five Month Months Year Years Years Net asset value 0.1% 5.1% 69.2% -16.6% 33.2% Share price -1.6% 3.4% 66.0% -25.2% 28.3% HGSC ex Inv Trust + AIM* 0.6% 4.0% 63.2% -29.7% -6.4% Sources: BlackRock and Datastream *With effect from 1 September 2007 the Hoare Govett Smaller Companies plus AIM (ex Investment Companies) Index replaced the FTSE SmallCap Index (ex Investment Companies) as the Company's benchmark. For three year and five year periods the above index has been blended to reflect this. At month end Net asset value Capital only (debt at par value): 375.23p Net asset value Capital only (debt at fair value): 370.97p Net asset value incl. Income (debt at par value): 380.72p** Net asset value incl. Income (debt at fair value): 376.46p** Share price: 293.75p Discount to Capital only NAV (debt at par value): 21.7% Discount to Capital only NAV (debt at fair value): 20.8% Net yield: 1.7% Total assets: £203.2m^ Gearing incl. Income: 11.3% Ordinary shares in issue: 47,879,792^^ **includes net revenue of 5.49p. ^includes current year revenue. ^^excludes 2,113,731 shares held in treasury. Ten Largest Sector Weightings % of Total Assets Software & Computer Services 10.9 Industrial Metals & Mining 10.5 Financial Services 9.3 Oil & Gas Producers 8.8 Support Services 6.9 Industrial Engineering 6.7 Electronic & Electrical Equipment 6.1 Technology Hardware & Equipment 5.6 Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 4.6 Real Estate Investment Services 3.7 ---- Total 73.1 ==== Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order) Company Abcam Group Aveva Group Brewin Dolphin Holdings City of London Investment Group Domino Printing Sciences Eastern Platinum Fidessa group Rotork Spirax-Sarco Engineering Victrex Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis, representing the Investment Manager noted: February was a fairly flat month for the Company's NAV, although the benchmark did record a small increase. The biggest contribution to outperformance came from our holdings in Fidessa, Eastern Platinum and Cove Energy. Fidessa, a leading software provider to the financial services sector, delivered very strong full year results with earnings up by 33%. Constant currency organic sales growth was a highly impressive 17%. Revenues of a recurring nature represent 80% of total revenues. Eastern Platinum shares continued to perform well on the back of good production numbers and the higher level of platinum group metal prices. Cove Energy, a higher risk small holding, encountered a 480 net feet natural gas column while drilling its first Anadarko operated deep well offshore Mozambique. This looks very promising and could indicate the existence of a major new hydrocarbons province, Cove shares increased by 61% during the month, although given the small size of the holding the impact on our NAV was only 16 basis points. Performance was negatively impacted by our holdings in BATM Advanced Communications and Intec Telecom Systems. BATM Advanced Communications produced final results which did not meet some of the more optimistic analysts' forecasts. It also indicated that telecom spending could take longer to pick up than had been hoped. We met management and believe their line is consistent with that taken in previous meetings with us. They have maintained share in markets and revenues and profits have held up much better than most peers. Their medical business should start to contribute to profits soon. We see this business as having considerable potential; it has a strong balance sheet and the shares are attractively valued. Intec Telecom Systems referred to some delays in the signing of new software contracts in EMEA. This is consistent with comments by Alterian last month. We believe Western European companies and governments are slowing decision making, but this does not seem to be the case in rapidly growing markets. The two largest new holdings were Ferrexpo and Ashtead, each about 0.5% of net assets. Ferrexpo is one of the largest stocks in our recently rebalanced benchmark. It produces iron ore in the Ukraine where it has a very large resource. Rio Tinto, BHP and others are seeking a large increase in the iron ore price which would benefit Ferrexpo. Ashtead is a plant hire company which is heavily exposed to the US. We expect construction activity to begin to pick up in the US later in 2010 and Ashtead is a highly operationally and financially geared to play this. We sold a few smaller holdings including those in Sportingbet and Plant Health Care. Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/its on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). 18 March 2010
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