Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 9598G

Scottish Oriental Smlr Co Tst PLC

05 July 2012

 

The Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust PLC

Interim Management Statement

For the Three Month Period from 1 March 2012 to 31 May 2012

Investment Objective

Scottish Oriental aims to achieve long term capital growth by investing in smaller Asian quoted companies with market capitalisations under US$1,000m, or the equivalent thereof, at the time of first investment.  Asia is deemed to include the Indian subcontinent but excludes Japan and Australasia.

Performance Summary#

	As at  31 May  2012	As at 29 February 2012	Movement
Net asset value per share	628.5p	645.5p	(2.6%)
Share price	581.25p	635.0p	(8.5%)
Discount to NAV	7.5%	1.6%	-
Shares in issue	30,213,650	30,213,650	-
Shareholders' funds	£189.9m	£195.0m	(2.6%)
Market capitalisation	£175.6m	£191.9m	(8.5%)

# The information provided above is based on unaudited, capital only figures.

Period Review and Material Events

Scottish Oriental's net asset value (NAV) declined by 2.6% over the period compared to falls of 9.0% in the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Index and 9.5% in the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Small Cap Index.

The Trust's outperformance relative to the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Index was largely due to its underweight position in China and India as well as strong returns from a number of holdings in South East Asia.

The share price fell by 8.5% to 581.25p over the period resulting in a widening of the discount to net asset value to 7.5%.

On 5 April 2012 the Company announced that Susie Rippingall would step down as Portfolio Manager on 1 April 2013, when she intended to retire from First State Investments. Angus Tulloch, Wee-Li Hee and Scott McNab, who would continue his involvement with the Company, would become Co-Managers at that time.

Additional Information

Up to date NAV and share price information is available from the Company's website www.scottishoriental.co.uk.

For further information please contact Susie Rippingall at First State Investments in Hong Kong by telephone [phone]) or email ([e-mail])

 

END

 

 

IMSDZLFBLDFZBBF