Last checked at 11 Apr 2019 16:00
BlackRock World Mining Trust Plc - Portfolio UpdateBlackRock World Mining Trust Plc - Portfolio Update
PR Newswire
London, April 11
| BLACKROCK WORLD MINING TRUST plc (LEI - LNFFPBEUZJBOSR6PW155) | |||||||||||||||
| All information is at 31 March 2019 and unaudited. | |||||||||||||||
| Performance at month end with net income reinvested | |||||||||||||||
| One | Three | One | Three | Five | |||||||||||
| Month | Months | Year | Years | Years | |||||||||||
| Net asset value | 3.5% | 10.9% | 6.7% | 91.2% | 13.0% | ||||||||||
| Share price | 4.5% | 10.5% | 4.0% | 91.3% | 5.4% | ||||||||||
| EMIX Global Mining Index (Net) | 4.9% | 12.5% | 13.6% | 94.1% | 32.2% | ||||||||||
| (Total return) | |||||||||||||||
| Sources: BlackRock, EMIX Global Mining Index, Datastream | |||||||||||||||
| At month end | |||||||||||||||
| Net asset value including income1: | 422.80p | ||||||||||||||
| Net asset value capital only: | 417.86p | ||||||||||||||
| 1 Includes net revenue of 4.94p | |||||||||||||||
| Share price: | 367.00p | ||||||||||||||
| Discount to NAV2: | 13.2% | ||||||||||||||
| Total assets: | £857.6m | ||||||||||||||
| Net yield3: | 4.9% | ||||||||||||||
| Net gearing: | 11.8% | ||||||||||||||
| Ordinary shares in issue: | 176,330,242 | ||||||||||||||
| Ordinary shares held in treasury: | 16,681,600 | ||||||||||||||
| Ongoing charges4: | 0.9% | ||||||||||||||
| 2 Discount to NAV including income. 3 Based on quarterly interim dividends of 3.00p per share declared on 25 April 2018, 17 August 2018 and 8 November 2018 and a final dividend of 9.00p per share announced on 28 February 2019 in respect of the year ended 31 December 2018. 4 Calculated as a percentage of average net assets and using expenses, excluding finance costs, for the year ended 31 December 2018. | |||||||||||||||
| Sector | % Total | Country Analysis | % Total | ||||||||||||
| Assets | Assets | ||||||||||||||
| Diversified | 44.9 | Global | 61.8 | ||||||||||||
| Copper | 20.1 | Latin America | 12.7 | ||||||||||||
| Gold | 15.6 | Australasia | 9.2 | ||||||||||||
| Industrial Minerals | 6.6 | Canada | 6.0 | ||||||||||||
| Silver & Diamonds | 6.0 | Other Africa | 2.0 | ||||||||||||
| Materials | 1.1 | South Africa | 1.5 | ||||||||||||
| Aluminium | 0.8 | USA | 1.4 | ||||||||||||
| Coal | 0.6 | Kazakhstan | 1.0 | ||||||||||||
| Nickel | 0.5 | Indonesia | 0.5 | ||||||||||||
| Zinc | 0.5 | Russia | 0.5 | ||||||||||||
| Molybdenum | 0.4 | China | 0.4 | ||||||||||||
| Iron Ore | 0.1 | Argentina | 0.1 | ||||||||||||
| Current assets | 2.8 | Emerging Europe | 0.1 | ||||||||||||
| Current assets | 2.8 | ||||||||||||||
| ----- | ----- | ||||||||||||||
| 100.0 | 100.0 | ||||||||||||||
| ===== | ===== | ||||||||||||||
| Ten Largest Investments | |||||||||||||||
| Company | % Total Assets | ||||||||||||||
| BHP | 10.7 | ||||||||||||||
| Rio Tinto | 9.2 | ||||||||||||||
| Glencore | 7.2 | ||||||||||||||
| First Quantum Minerals | 6.6 | ||||||||||||||
| Vale | 6.1 | ||||||||||||||
| OZ Minerals Brazil - royalty | 4.6 | ||||||||||||||
| Teck Resources | 3.3 | ||||||||||||||
| Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde | 3.3 | ||||||||||||||
| Newmont Mining | 2.9 | ||||||||||||||
| Barrick Gold | 2.5 | ||||||||||||||
| Commenting on the markets, Evy Hambro and Olivia Markham, representing the Investment Manager noted: |
| Performance The Company’s NAV increased by 3.5%1 in March, underperforming its reference index, the EMIX Global Mining Index (net return), which increased by 4.9%2. Global equity markets continued to rise in March, as displayed by the MSCI World Index returning 1.1%. The Federal Reserve, however, continued to be dovish, announcing that the US economy was slowing more than had been anticipated and therefore they were leaving interest rates unchanged. They also signalled little appetite for any rises in the near future. Geopolitical tensions also remained elevated throughout the month and the uncertainty surrounding the logistics of Brexit continued. Macroeconomic data was mixed, with noise around the yield curve inverting, combined with weak European PMIs (Purchasing Managers Index). (Figures in USD) Within the mining sector, having performed strongly in January and February, we saw a degree of profit taking post company results. In terms of the mined commodities, the base metals were somewhat flat during the month, with the exception of zinc which increased by 6.6% on the back of supply side tightness. The iron ore (62% fe) price also remained elevated, finishing the month at a price of $87/tonne, as the market remains tight on the back of Vale’s suspension of production and the cyclone activity impacting production in Western Australia. (Figures in USD) Within the Company, a number of the copper companies gave up some of their strong year-to-date performance during the month, with our positions in Ero Copper and First Quantum appearing amongst the largest detractors from relative performance. Strategy and Outlook We recognise that finding a resolution to the US/China trade war will be difficult. There appears to be bipartisan support in the US for a tough stance on China and it is unclear how the technology transfer issue can be resolved. However, our view is that the market may be overestimating the impact these trade tensions would have on global economic growth. Should we see even gradual improvements in relations between the two countries, we would expect mined commodity prices to improve. Meanwhile, our overall base case for China is that it has the tools to successfully manage a gradual slow-down and we do not anticipate a hard-landing type event. Supply and demand is tight in most mined commodity markets today and, given the cuts in mining sector spending since 2012 (down 66%), we expect it to remain so. Our base case is therefore, barring an economic slowdown, mined commodity prices to be stable to rising through 2019. Meanwhile, we believe the shares are pricing in a materially worse commodity price environment. We see the risk-reward opportunity in mining as attractive given the improvements in balance sheets over the last 2-3 years and given many of the large diversified miners are trading on free cash flow yields of above 10%. All data points are in GBP terms unless stated otherwise |
| 1 Source: BlackRock as at 31 March 2019 2 Source: EMIX Global Mining Index as at 31 March 2019 |
| Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/brwm on the internet. Neither the contents of the Manager’s website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager’s website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement. |