Athelney Trust PLC
Legal Entity Identifier:
213800ON67TJC7F4DL05
The unaudited net asset value of Athelney Trust
was 192.7p at 29 February 2024.
Fund Manager's
comment for February 2024
Recent UK data indicated that the
February composite PMI rose further to 53.3, reflecting a modest
expansion in an environment where costs have continued to increase
due in part to higher labour costs as well as rising freight costs
linked to the Red Sea crisis. In Europe, the ECB has made
significant progress in reducing the February
inflation rate to 2.6% after it peaked in October 2022 at 10.7%
with lower natural gas prices contributing to the decline. However,
with unemployment at record lows, policymakers are wary of moving
too aggressively in lowering interest rates, and have indicated an
increasingly clear preference to see how wages trend before making
a decision to adjust interest rates. This was made clear by the US
Federal Reserve member, Christopher Waller, when he said on
Thursday that policymakers should delay interest rate cuts for at
least another couple of months to see if the recent uptick in
inflation signals a stalling of progress towards price stability,
or whether it is just a bump in the road.
These cautious comments appeared to
be ignored by the stock markets as the NASDAQ continued to power
along, up by 6.12% for the month. The S&P500 also benefited from the positive sentiment in the
equity markets, reporting an 5.17% improvement over the month as
did the MSCI which was up by 4.11%. The UK markets remained
in the doldrums, with the FTSE down by 0.01%, the FTSE 250 down by
1.57%, the Small Cap Index down by 0.62% and the AIM All-Share
index down by 2.42%. The Athelney portfolio
declined by 5.6%, during the month and after allowing for expenses,
including additional audit and related fees, the NAV reflected a
decline of 5.86%.
The under-performance in February
for the most part was due to a material decline in the value of our
holding in Close Brothers (CBG) following an announcement by the FCA of a review of historical motor
finance commission arrangements. The financial impact of this on
the group is difficult to determine and when the CBG board decided
to not pay any dividends on its ordinary shares for the current
financial year and indicated that the reinstatement of dividends
will only be reviewed once the FCA has concluded its
review, we sold our entire holding.
We also sold our holding in Target Healthcare and top sliced our
holding in 4Imprint and the NWF Group, adding to our position in XP
power, London Metric Property and introducing WISE to the
portfolio.
Wise is a high-growth, high-margin,
founder-led tech business focused on reducing the cost of
cross-border money movement in an extremely inefficient legacy
banking network. The intermediary-heavy nature of this network
creates pressure to keep fees high, as does banks' short-term
profit motive to continue earning the highly profitable income
stream from the cross-border transactions.
Our cash holding at month end
increased to 6.2% of the portfolio.
Fact
Sheet
An accompanying fact sheet which includes the
information above as well as wider details on the portfolio can be
found on the Fund's website www.athelneytrust.co.uk under
"About" then select "Latest Monthly Fact Sheet".
Background Information
Dr. Emmanuel (Manny) Pohl AM
Manny is Chairman and Chief Investment Officer
of E C Pohl & Co ("ECP"), an investment management company and
has been a major shareholder in Athelney trust for many
years.
E C Pohl & co is licensed by the Australian
Financial services (license no.421704).
www.ecpohl.com
www.ecpam.com
Manny Pohl and the ECP group has AUD2.7bn (£1.5
billion) under its management including four listed investment
companies, three listed in Australia and one in the UK:
·
Flagship Investments (ASX code:FSI)
AUD95m https://flagshipinvestments.com.au
·
Barrack St Investments (ASX code: BST)
AUD37m www.barrackst.com
·
Global Masters Fund Limited (ASX code: GFL)
AUD33m www.globalmastersfund.com.au
·
Athelney Trust plc (LSE code: ATY)
GBP6m www.athelneytrust.co.uk
Athelney Trust
plc Investment Policy
The investment objective of the Trust is
to provide shareholders with prospects of long-term capital growth
with the risks inherent in small cap investment minimised through a
spread of holdings in quality small cap companies that operate in
various industries and sectors. The Fund Manager also considers
that it is important to maintain a progressive dividend
record.
The assets of the Trust are allocated
predominantly to companies with either a full listing on the London
Stock Exchange or a trading facility on AIM or ISDX. The assets of
the Trust have been allocated in two main ways: first, to the
shares of those companies which have grown steadily over the years
in terms of profits and dividends but, despite this progress, the
market rating is favourable when compared to future earnings and
dividends; second, to those companies whose shares are standing at
a favourable level compared with the value of land, buildings or
cash in the balance sheet.
Athelney Trust was founded in 1994. In 1996 it
was one of the ten pioneer members of the Alternative Investment
Market ("AIM"). In 2008 the shares became fully listed on the main
market of the London Stock Exchange. Athelney Trust has a
successful progressive dividend growth record and the dividend has
grown every year since 2004. According to the Association of
Investment Companies (AIC) Athelney Trust is a "Dividend Hero"
being one of only a few investment companies that have increased
their dividend every year for 20 years or more. See link
https://www.theaic.co.uk/income-finder/dividend-heroes
Website
www.athelneytrust.co.uk