Portfolio Update

THE THROGMORTON TRUST PLC All information is at 30 April 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# 15.5% 17.2 -29.0% -39.7% Net asset value* 15.5% 17.2% -32.3% -42.6% Share price 20.4% 25.2% -33.4% -43.1% HGSC plus AIM (ex Inv Cos) 19.5% 23.5% -31.6% -35.0% # 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: 106.08p Net asset value incl Income: 108.82p Share price: 87.50p Discount to Capital only NAV: 17.5% Net yield: 2.7% Total assets: £90.6m * Gearing: 1.1% * 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 12.3 Financial Services 11.2 Support Services 10.3 Oil & Gas Producers 6.9 Aerospace & Defence 6.7 Mining 4.9 Industrial Engineering 4.5 Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 4.4 Electronic & Electrical Equipment 3.6 Media 3.6 ---- Total 68.4 ==== Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order) Company Brewin Dolphin Holdings Chemring Group Connaught Dechra Pharmaceuticals Domino Prining Sciences Emerald Energy Fidessa Rathbone Brothers Rensburg Sheppards SDL Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis and Richard Plackett, representing the Investment Manager noted: Markets rallied strongly in April, led by recovery stocks. Whilst our portfolio remains relatively defensive, recent purchases of recovery stocks helped performance. The NAV increase was well behind the increase in our benchmark. The FTSE 100 lagged, rising by 8.1%. Sector allocation in the long only portfolio was negative and accounted for 2.5% of our relative underperformance. The largest contributor to this, 0.8% of the underperformance, was due to holding more than £4 million of cash, which was a drag on performance in a month when the benchmark rose strongly. This cash had to be retained to pay the final and special dividend of £4 million due in early May 2009. From a stock point of view, relative performance in the long only portfolio was impacted by poor contributions from London Capital, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Mouchel Group and Brewin Dolphin. London Capital indicated that trading had been quieter than expected in late March, and some extra costs had been incurred pending finalisation of testing of their new trading software. Current year earnings were cut by 7%, the shares fell 15% during the month and now trade at about 8 times current year earnings, which we see as good value. Dechra shares were flat on the month; a trading update late in the month confirmed that trading remains in line with expectations. Mouchel shares fell 12% as worries persisted about the degree of recoverability of their Middle Eastern debts and their ability to win new large contracts. We see these as fully priced into the valuation. Brewin's shares were flat due to an absence of news. The main positive contributors to long only portfolio relative performance were holdings in Pace, Frontier Mining, Alterian and Fidessa. Pace has seen very strong growth in demand for its digital set top boxes and earnings forecasts have increased by more than 70%. Frontier Mining finally agreed its refinancing deal, and executive management have been changed. Fidessa shares powered ahead as trading remained stronger than anticipated by the market; at a recent product demonstration management were clearly very assured. Alterian confirmed trading in line with expectations and strong revenue growth for its software helped by a high level of recurring revenues. New holdings were acquired in Heritage Oil, Game Group and Enterprise Inns. Heritage found a significant oilfield in Kurdistan; this looks to be a multi billion barrel field. Game Group has been delivering strong growth, most recently helped by sales of high margin, pre-owned games software. We were impressed when we met management. Enterprise Inns is a former FTSE 100 company and an owner of over 5,000 freehold pubs in the UK, which it lets to tenants. Its core estate of high quality pubs is proving resilient, but the growing tail of underperformers is requiring considerable attention. We are continuing to look for attractively valued early cycle recovery stocks to supplement our core high quality growth stocks. Overall, the long only portfolio retains a defensive bias. In the CFD portfolio we continued to close out short positions in cyclical stocks which continued to perform strongly. Overall the CFD portfolio is net long. 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). 21 May 2009
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