Portfolio Update

THE THROGMORTON TRUST PLC All information is at 31 July 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# 6.3% 12.3% -8.7% -25.7% Net asset value* 6.3% 12.3% -13.0% -29.3% Share price 10.8% 17.4% -11.6% -26.7% HGSC plus AIM (ex Inv Cos) 6.6% 10.4% -12.6% -22.2% # NAV performance prior to costs of repaying the debentures early * NAV performance after costs of repaying the debentures early Sources: BlackRock and Datastream At month end Net asset value Capital only: 119.51p Net asset value incl Income: 122.23p Share price: 102.75p Discount to Capital only NAV: 14.0% Net yield: 2.3% Total assets: £100.8m * Gearing: 0.2% Ordinary shares in continuing pool: 82,351,197 ** * Includes current year revenue. ** Excluding treasury shares. Ten Largest Sector Weightings % of Total Assets Software & Computer Services 12.1 Financial Services 9.8 Oil & Gas Producers 8.7 Support Services 7.8 Mining 5.3 Industrial Engineering 5.3 Technology Hardware & Equipment 4.3 General Retailers 4.2 Travel & Leisure 4.2 Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 3.8 ---- Total 65.5 ==== Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order) Company Aveva Group Brewin Dolphin Holdings Dechra Pharmaceuticals Domino Prining Sciences Emerald Energy Fidessa Pace Rathbone Brothers Rensburg Sheppards Victrex Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis and Richard Plackett, representing the Investment Manager noted: During July the NAV increased by 6.3% on a cum income basis, marginally behind the benchmark which rose by 6.6%. The FTSE 100 rose by 8.5%. Relative performance in the long only portfolio was impacted by a poor contribution from Rathbone Brothers and Phorm. Rathbones reported interims in late July which showed that it is getting far less interest margin on customer deposits than last year; this trend will continue whilst interest rates remain low. We see the Rathbones brand as being strong, helping to generate reasonable organic funds growth, and the shares are now trading at close to the bottom of the cycle earnings, with a strong balance sheet supported by a good yield. Phorm is a small holding, and an interesting software company with potentially considerable upside. However, its key trial customer has been BT, and BT elected to discontinue the trial during July. Trials are going on elsewhere in the world, but the BT news was disappointing and the shares fell sharply. The main contributors to relative outperformance in the long only portfolio were holdings in Emerald Energy and Western Canadian Coal. Emerald Energy announced that it had received a bid approach; in August Sinochem announced a cash offer. Western Canadian Coal completed its all share merger with Cambrian Mining, in which we had a holding. Western Canadian Coal shares had been strong before and post the merger; it is now a well financed, profitable coal producer with significant reserves mainly in North America. Holdings in Mouchel, Debenhams and DSGI were sold. Mouchel had failed to win any of the largest contracts it has been tendering for. Whilst it has a large order book of contracted business, it also has a high margin consultancy business where visibility is limited; this seems to have seen a fall off in demand, much of which comes from UK government. We don't see this situation improving in the near term. We remain cautious about UK consumer spending given the many pressures on UK individuals. Debenhams and DSGI had not been high conviction holdings. We took a new holding in IQE. IQE is a leading global manufacturer of compound semiconductors, most of which are used in mobile phones. The growing use of smartphones is a big positive for IQE since smartphones use many more compound semiconductors than ordinary mobile phones. Other verticals also offer good potential for IQE. The CFD portfolio had a strong month with the market rally widening out to include a number of high quality growth companies in which we have long CFD positions. 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). 24 August 2009
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