Monks Investment Trust Annual Report
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THE MONKS INVESTMENT TRUST PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 30 April 2014 Contents 1 Company Summary 2 Strategic Report including: 2 Chairman’s Statement 4 Year’s Summary 5 Five Year Summary 6 Business Review 8 Managers’ Portfolio Review 11 Distribution of Portfolio 11 Investment Changes 12 Thirty Largest Equity Holdings 13 Classification of Investments 14 List of Investments 18 Ten Year Record 19 Directors and Management 20 Directors’ Report 26 Directors’ Remuneration Report 28 Statement of Directors’ Responsibilities 29 Independent Auditor’s Report 32 Income Statement 33 Balance Sheet 34 Reconciliation of Movements in Shareholders’ Funds 35 Cash Flow Statement 35 Reconciliation of Net Cash Flow to Movement in Net Funds/(Debt) 36 Notes to the Financial Statements 51 Notice of Annual General Meeting 54 Further Shareholder Information 54 Analysis of Shareholders 55 Cost-effective Ways to Buy and Hold Shares in Monks 56 Communicating with Shareholders 57 Glossary of Terms Notes None of the views expressed in this document should be construed as advice to buy or sell a particular investment. Investment trusts are UK public listed companies and as such comply with the requirements of the UK Listing Authority. They are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Monks currently conducts its affairs, and intends to continue to conduct its affairs, so that the Company’s Ordinary Shares can be recommended by Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) to ordinary retail investors in accordance with the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in relation to non-mainstream investment products. Monks Ordinary Shares are excluded from the FCA’s restrictions that apply to non-mainstream investment products because they are shares in an investment trust. THIS DOCUMENT IS IMPORTANT AND REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. If you are in any doubt as to the action you should take you should consult your stockbroker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant or other independent financial advisor authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 immediately if you are in the United Kingdom or, if not, from another appropriately authorised financial adviser. If you have sold or otherwise transferred all of your ordinary shares in The Monks Investment Trust PLC, please forward this document and the accompanying form of proxy as soon as possible to the purchaser or transferee or to the stockbroker, bank or other agent through whom the sale or transfer was or is being effected for delivery to the purchaser or transferee. Company Summary Company Summary Monks objective is to invest internationally to achieve capital growth, which takes priority over income and dividends. Investment Policy Capital Structure Monks invests principally in a portfolio of international quoted At the year end the Company’s share capital consisted of equities. The Company is prepared to move freely between 227,887,859 fully paid ordinary shares of 5p each. The Company different markets as opportunities arise. Asset classes other than has been granted authority to buy back a limited number of its equities may be purchased from time to time including fixed own ordinary shares for cancellation. Long term gearing has been interest holdings, unquoted securities and derivatives. The equity secured by the issue of £40 million (nominal value) of debenture portfolio may be relatively concentrated for a global fund. stock. Further details of the Company’s investment policy are given in AIC the Business Review on page 6. The Company is a member of the Association of Investment Comparative Index Companies. The principal index against which performance is measured is the Savings Vehicles FTSE World Index (in sterling terms). The composition of the Monks shares can be held through a variety of savings vehicles portfolio is likely to vary substantially from that of the index. (see page 55 for details). Management Details Notes Baillie Gifford & Co are appointed as Investment Managers and None of the views expressed in this document should be Secretaries to the Company. The manager of Monks portfolio is construed as advice to buy or sell a particular investment. Gerald Smith and the deputy manager is Tom Walsh. Further details regarding Baillie Gifford & Co, Gerald Smith and Tom Investment trusts are UK public listed companies and as such Walsh are given on page 19. The management contract can be comply with the requirements of the UK Listing Authority. They are terminated on 6 months’ notice. not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Management Fee Baillie Gifford & Co’s annual remuneration is 0.45% of total assets less current liabilities, calculated on a quarterly basis. The Monks Investment Trust PLC 01 Strategic Report Strategic Report This Strategic Report, which includes pages 2 to 18 and incorporates the Chairman’s Statement has been prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006. This report is a new requirement and contains many of the disclosures previously contained within the Business Review section of the Directors’ Report. Chairman’s Statement Performance Earnings and Dividend In the year to 30 April 2014 the net asset value total return, with Earnings per share were 4.87p compared with 4.68p, an increase borrowings at fair value, was 5.2% and the share price total of 4.1%. The increase in earnings per share was a result of the return was 5.4%. Over the same period the total return for the reduced number of shares in issue. Income from fixed income FTSE World Index was 6.8%. During the second half of the investments was lower than in the previous year as a result of Company’s year the net asset value per share reached a record investment changes and this more than offset an increase in month-end high at the end of February 2014 but performance dividend income from the equity holdings and a reduction in deteriorated from this point as growth stocks suffered a setback. finance costs. Monks invests with the aim of achieving capital As can be seen from the graph below, performance was well growth rather than income and all costs are charged to the ahead of the comparative index until the last two months of the Revenue Account. Company’s year. The Board is recommending a final dividend of 3.45p, which Last year the Board and the Managers undertook a thorough together with the interim (0.50p) already paid, would make the total review of the causes of performance in recent years and actions dividend for the year 3.95p, unchanged from the previous year. were taken to address these, including the strengthening of the team managing the portfolio with the appointment of Tom Walsh Investment Activity as deputy manager alongside Gerald Smith. The success of these Over the course of the year there was a net disinvestment of steps cannot be evaluated over a period as short as a year, given £91.1m comprising £85.4m in net sales of equities and £5.7m in the Company’s objective of capital appreciation over the long net sales of bonds. There were net purchases of equities in Europe term, but there have been encouraging signs of an improvement and Australasia and net sales in all other regions. The proceeds of in trend, notwithstanding the influence of some extreme share these sales were mainly used to repay debt and repurchase price moves in the last two months of the period. shares for cancellation. A £40m three year loan was repaid on maturity at the end of February. The Managers’ Portfolio Review on pages 8 to 10 contains more detail on the individual investments that made the greatest The level of gearing is managed in various ways, including through positive and negative contributions to performance as well as the use of exchange-traded derivative contracts and adjustments descriptions of the ten largest holdings. to the level of borrowings and cash. At the start of the year the effective gearing, taking into account futures and options positions, was 1% of shareholders’ funds. Effective gearing has been Total Return Performance maintained at close to 0% throughout the year. At the end of April (figures rebased to 100 at 30 April 2013) the remaining debt was offset by cash and a single put option position on the index of Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong 115 resulting in year end effective gearing of -1%. 110 Buybacks and Discount During the year to 30 April 2014 £44.1m was spent on the 105 repurchase of 12.4m shares, representing 5.2% of the shares in issue at the start of the year. Since the power to buy back shares 100 was first granted in 1999, 160m shares have been bought back and cancelled, representing 41% of the share capital at the start 95 of that period. The Board will continue to buy back shares if A MJ J A S ON DJ F M A suitable opportunities appear. 2013 2014 Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream/Morningstar/Baillie Gifford & Co. The discount (at fair value) of 13.0% is unchanged from the previous Dividends are reinvested. year end. The Board considers the level of discount and has NAV (fair) total return authorised the repurchase of shares when this will be of benefit to Share price total return continuing shareholders as well as being in the interest of those FTSE World Index total return shareholders who may need to sell some or all of their shares. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. 02 Annual Report 2014 Strategic Report Outlook Our portfolio is diversified across a range of different types of The period since what has become known as the Global Financial shares, but is biased away from the very largest companies at Crisis has been in many ways an abnormal one owing to the present.