5 Aug 2014 09:18
The World Trust Fund
Interim Management Statement
for the quarter ended 30th June 2014
The World Trust Fund (the "Fund") is publishing this Interim Management Statement in accordance with the Luxembourg law of 11 January 2008 on Transparency requirements (the "Transparency law").
This Interim Management Statement has been produced solely to provide additional information to shareholders as a body to meet the relevant requirements of the Transparency law. It should not be relied upon by any other party or for any other purpose.
This Interim Management Statement relates to the period from 1 April 2014 to 30 June 2014 and contains information that covers this period and the period up to the date of publication of this Interim Management Statement.
The Fund aims to achieve long-term capital appreciation by investing in companies, in the main closed-end investment companies, whose shares trade at a discount to their underlying net asset value and are listed on international exchanges. For hedging purposes the Fund may also sell short stock indices, stocks, and shares of exchange-traded funds or closed-end funds, not exceeding 100% of the Fund's net assets.
Highlights:
Over the 3 month period from 1 April 2014 to 30 June 2014:
· The Fund's diluted net asset value (NAV) rose 2.3% to $4.25 in US$ terms (base currency), compared with a rise of 5.0% in the MSCI All Countries World Index and a 5.0% rise in the MSCI All World ex U.S index.
· The Fund's share price rose in Sterling terms by 2.8% to 222 pence.
· The discount to NAV (in Sterling) at the end of the period was 10.7%.
· The Fund's underlying holdings had an average weighted discount of 19.8%.
Long Term Performance:
1-Year | 3-Year** | 5-Year** | 10-Year** | |
Share Price £ | +7.0% | +4.6% | +11.7% | +6.6% |
Share Price US$* | +20.0% | +6.9% | + 12.6% | +6.0% |
Net Asset Value £* | +4.2% | +4.4% | +11.5% | +6.1% |
Net Asset Value US$ | +16.9% | +6.7% | +12.3% | +5.5% |
MSCI All Countries World US$ | +23.0% | +10.3% | +14.3% | +7.5% |
*Converted using Foreign Exchange rate used by the administrator.
** Annualized.
Top Five Holdings (%): | 30/06/14 | 31/03/14 |
First Pacific Co. Ltd | 5.8% | 6.1% |
Eurazeo | 5.8% | 7.0% |
General American Investors | 5.4% | 6.2% |
JPMorgan European Smaller | 5.3% | 6.6% |
Citic Securities | 4.9% | 5.5% |
Top 5 Regional Breakdown (%) | 30/06/14 | 31/03/14 |
Asia ex Japan | 21.6% | 20.0% |
Europe (ex UK) | 13.7% | 13.7% |
North America | 12.4% | 14.8% |
Japan | 8.2% | 9.5% |
United Kingdom | 6.5% | 8.0% |
The above change in regional exposure largely is a reflection of the reduction in the Company's short positions over the period, which can be seen below.
30/06/14 | 31/03/14 | |
Long Exposure | 85.8% | 97.7% |
Short Exposure | -16.4% | -25.3% |
Net Exposure | 69.4% | 72.4% |
Top 10 Country Weightings (%)
| 30/06/14 |
United States | 11.5% |
China | 8.6% |
Japan | 8.2% |
United Kingdom | 6.5% |
France | 4.3% |
Philippines | 4.1% |
Switzerland | 3.7% |
Singapore | 3.1% |
India | 2.5% |
Sweden | 2.5% |
Leverage:
As at 30 June 2014 the Fund had no leverage.
Material Transactions and Events:
Warrants - Final exercise
On 02 April 2014 the Fund announced that 7,794,037 ordinary shares had been issued and allotted following the final exercise of all the Fund's outstanding Warrants. Following the allotment of the ordinary shares there were 57,819,622 shares in issue with voting rights (including 10,211,277 ordinary shares which are held in treasury).
Tender Offer
On June 2nd 2014 the Fund posted a circular in relation to the Tender Offer for up to 15% of the issued share capital of the Fund, as well as Notice of the required Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on 25th June 2014.
On July 2nd 2014 the Board announced that 7,141,250 shares had been successfully tendered and cancelled. Following the Tender Offer there are 50,678,372 shares in issue with voting rights (including 10,211,277 ordinary shares which are held in treasury).
Annual results
On 22 July 2014, the Fund announced its annual results for the period ended 31 March 2014, which included the following key events:
- the commencement of a dividend payment of substantially all of the investment income of the Fund, net of operating costs (excluding performance fee) to be paid semi-annually;
- the introduction of an additional reference index of the MSCI All World ex U.S in addition to the MSCI All Country World Index benchmark; and
- the continuation of the Board's policy of seeking annual authority to acquire up to 14.99% of its shares through market purchases as part of its discount control policy although any proposals for future tender offers will be at the discretion of the Board which will take into account factors such as the level of discount at which the Fund has traded, the performance of the Fund and the views of shareholders.