Portfolio Update

THE THROGMORTON TRUST PLC All information is at 28 February 2009 and unaudited. Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income basis One Three One Three Month Months Year Years Net asset value# 0.2% 4.7% -40.6% -45.3% Net asset value* 0.2% 4.7% -43.6% -48.0% Share price 0.0% 18.7% -45.0% -53.1% HGSC plus AIM (ex Inv Cos) -1.6% -0.6% -46.6% -45.9% # NAV prior to costs of repaying the debentures early * NAV after costs of repaying the debentures early Sources: BlackRock and Datastream At month end Net asset value Capital only: 90.79p Net asset value incl Income: 97.73p Share price: 74.50p Discount to Capital only NAV: 17.9% Net yield: 3.0% Total assets: £80.5m ** Gearing: Nil Ordinary shares in continuing pool: 82,351,197 ** Includes current year revenue. Ten Largest Sector Weightings % of Total Assets Software & Computer Services 13.0 Support Services 10.9 Financial Services 10.5 Aerospace & Defence 8.7 Oil & Gas Producers 5.9 Industrial Engineering 5.3 Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 5.0 Electronic & Electrical Equipment 4.0 Non-Life Insurance 3.4 Technology Hardware & Equipment 3.1 ---- Total 69.8 ==== Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order) Company Chemring Group Connaught Dechra Pharmaceuticals Domino Prining Sciences Emerald Energy Fidessa Rathbone Brothers Rensburg Sheppards SDL Ultra Electronics Holdings Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis and Richard Plackett, representing the Investment Manager noted: During February the NAV rose by 0.2%, whilst the benchmark fell by 1.6%. The FTSE 100 fell by 7.7% during the month. The main positive contributors to performance were Fidessa, RCG Holdings, SDL and Plant Impact. Fidessa produced excellent full year results showing an increase in earnings up 35%, additionally 77% of revenues are now of a recurring nature and good cash generation. RCG Holdings is a smaller holding, whose shares bounced after a weak period; RCG also listed their shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange. SDL also announced strong results, with increased earnings of 41%, good cash generation and a confident long term outlook. Plant Impact, also a small holding, announced that trials of one of its key products had gone well, and that it was close to agreeing a licensing deal with a major marketing partner. On the negative side relative underperformance during the month came from holdings in Endace, Intercytex and Aveva. Endace announced that some of its financial services customers had deferred purchases of their probes, however, growth potential still looks good medium term, but the shares fell sharply. Intercytex announced that Cyzact trials had not shown that it clearly improves the closure of leg ulcers, as had been suggested in earlier trials. This was a major surprise, and the shares crashed by more than 80%. Aveva shares have suffered on fears that it will in due course see a slowdown in initial licence fees as global customers delay or cancel new infrastructure projects and vessels; this has yet to happen, but the market is pricing in large earnings downgrades. Sector allocation during the month was negative. The two main constituent parts of this were our underweight positions in general retailers, our second largest underweight sector position, and our overweight position in aerospace and defence, our second largest sector overweight position. There has been a noticeable outperformance of certain early stage cyclical sectors and companies as investors look to identify companies where earnings expectations have already been heavily cut, and where the downside may be more limited. Undoubtedly, trading news from many of these companies is weak, and expected to weaken further, but arguably much of this is already factored into earnings forecasts therefore share prices should be close to their cyclical low. We think that the pressures on many retailers, not just top line related but also the significantly increased costs of sourcing overseas, are considerable, and valuations of most retailer shares are not compelling. Given the sector trends mentioned above, we decided to reduce our underweight position in consumer related stocks. New holdings in the month included Asos, Halfords, Persimmon and William Hill. We have met with each of these companies, except Asos, over the last few weeks; all except Persimmon continue to trade well. Asos is a good example, and benefits from all of its sales being over the internet. Persimmon and William Hill are good examples of larger companies which have been derated, and should be strong recovery stocks in due course. Both are fairly highly geared, but share issues by them are likely to be well supported. We sold holdings in Sinclair Pharma and Nighthawk Energy and trimmed various other holdings. The CFD portfolio generated a positive return. 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). 20 March 2009
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