REG-BlackRock Throgmorton Trust Plc: Portfolio Update

Blackrock Throgmorton TrustAnnouncement

23/12/2025 16:45

The information contained in this release was correct as at 30 November 2025. 
                    Information on the Company’s up to date net asset
values can be found on the London Stock Exchange Website at:

 

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-home.html
                              .           

 

BLACKROCK THROGMORTON TRUST PLC (LEI: 5493003B7ETS1JEDPF59)                   
           
                      

All information is at                                  30 November 2025       
                        and                      unaudited                   
.                                         
                     Performance at month end is calculated on a cum income
basis

 

                  One        Three       One       Three      Five       
                   Month      months      year      years      years     
                   %          %           %         %          %         
 Net asset value  -1.3       3.3         0.7       14.5       8.1        
 Share price      0.3        3.7         6.5       10.9       -0.6       
 Benchmark*       -0.2       3.1         10.1      18.2       21.4       

            

Sources: BlackRock and Deutsche Numis

*With effect from 15 January 2024 the Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM
(excluding Investment Companies) Index changed to the Deutsche Numis Smaller
Companies plus AIM (excluding Investment Companies).

 

 At month end                                                         
 Net asset value capital only:                            653.75p     
 Net asset value incl. income:                            668.55p     
 Share price                                              612.00p     
 Discount to cum income NAV                               8.5%        
 Net yield 1 :                                            3.0%        
 Total Gross assets 2 :                                   £501.6m     
 Net market exposure as a % of net asset value 3 :        106.9%      
 Ordinary shares in issue 4 :                             75,033,364  
 2024 ongoing charges (excluding performance fees) 5,6 :  0.56%       
 2024 ongoing charges ratio (including performance        0.82%       
  fees) 5,6,7 :                                                       

1. Calculated using the Final Dividend declared on 20 February 2025 paid on 11
April 2025, together with the Interim Dividend declared on 01 August 2025 paid
on 05 September 2025.

2. Includes current year revenue and excludes gross exposure through contracts
for difference.

3. Long exposure less short exposure as a percentage of net asset value.

4. Excluding 28,176,500 shares held in treasury.

5. The Company’s ongoing charges are calculated as a percentage of average
daily net assets and using the management fee and all other operating
expenses, excluding performance fees, finance costs, direct transaction
charges, VAT recovered, taxation and certain other non-recurring items for the
year ended 30 November 2024.

6. With effect from 1 August 2017 the base management fee was reduced from
0.70% to 0.35% of gross assets per annum. The Company’s ongoing charges are
calculated as a percentage of average daily net assets and using the
management fee and all other operating expenses, including performance fees,
but excluding finance costs, direct transaction charges, VAT recovered,
taxation and certain other non-recurring items for the year ended 30 November
2024.

7. Effective 1st December 2017 the annual performance fee is calculated using
performance data on an annualised rolling two-year basis (previously, one
year) and the maximum annual performance fee payable is effectively reduced to
0.90% of two year rolling average month end gross assets (from 1% of average
annual gross assets over one year). Additionally, the Company now accrues this
fee at a rate of 15% of outperformance (previously 10%). The maximum annual
total management fees (comprising the base management fee of 0.35% and a
potential performance fee of 0.90%) are therefore 1.25% of average month end
gross assets on a two-year rolling basis (from 1.70% of average annual gross
assets).

 

 Sector Weightings       % of Total Assets  
                                            
 Industrials             30.6               
 Financials              27.5               
 Basic Materials         8.6                
 Technology              6.5                
 Consumer Staples        5.4                
 Consumer Discretionary  4.9                
 Health Care             3.6                
 Real Estate             2.6                
 Telecommunications      1.6                
 Energy                  1.5                
 Utilities               0.8                
 Communication Services  0.8                
 Net Current Assets      5.6                
                         -----              
 Total                   100.0              
                         =====              
                                            
 Country Weightings      % of Total Assets  
                                            
 United Kingdom          88.6               
 United States           10.3               
 Italy                   0.6                
 France                  0.5                
                                            
                         -----              
 Total                   100.0              
                         =====              

 

 Market Exposure (Quarterly)                                     
                                                                 
                 28.02.25    31.05.25    31.08.25    30.11.25    
                  %           %           %           %          
 Long            117.8       108.4       113.2       113.0       
 Short           4.9         2.8         6.1         6.1         
 Gross exposure  122.7       111.1       119.3       119.1       
 Net exposure    112.9       105.6       107.1       106.9       

 

 Ten Largest Investments                           
                                                   
 Company                  % of Total Gross Assets  
                                                   
 XPS Pensions Group       3.7                      
 Rosebank Industries      3.1                      
 Boku                     3.1                      
 Morgan Sindall           3.0                      
 Tatton Asset Management  3.0                      
 Serco Group              2.9                      
 GPE                      2.6                      
 IntegraFin               2.4                      
 Rotork                   2.1                      
 Ig Group Holdings        2.1                      

 

Commenting on the markets, Dan Whitestone, representing the Investment Manager
noted:

 

The Company returned -1.3% in November, underperforming its benchmark, the
Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies +AIM (excluding Investment Companies) Index,
which returned -0.2%.

 

November was another month where, looking at headline market returns belied a
lot of volatility and rotation under the surface, with value and lower quality
shares outperforming growth and quality which pretty much sums up the entire
period for our financial year. In the UK, the chancellor announced her long
anticipated budget, and whilst there was some relief there has been no repeat
of last year's badly conceived national insurance hike, there was precious
little to be cheerful about in a further £26 billion of tax rises. Against
this backdrop, UK large caps edged higher (also value led) in the month while
small and mid-caps recorded a small negative return.

 

The largest contributor in the month was XPS Pensions, which rallied after
releasing its H1 2026 results toward the end of November. The company
delivered double-digit year-on-year revenue growth, underpinned by strong
performance in pensions administration and advisory services. This reflects
structural tailwinds in the UK pensions market, where heightened regulatory
complexity and increased demand for de-risking solutions are driving activity.
The ongoing changes in pension regulation remains a key catalyst for long term
structural growth, validating our investment thesis and supporting
expectations for sustained earnings momentum into FY26. Our holding in
Hochschild Mining rallied after the company raised C$16.5 million from the
partial sale of its stake in Tiernan Gold Corp in a private placement during
the month. DevOps software provider J-Frog released excellent Q3 earnings,
which beat expectations resulting in raised guidance for Q4 and the full year.
The business continues its strong execution in both AI and cloud strategies,
with cloud revenue up 50% and now accounting for 46% of total revenue,
resulting in a 26% surge in group revenues.

 

The largest detractor was multi-channel payments provider, Paypoint, which
fell after the company warned that its target of reaching £100 million EBITDA
(Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation), will likely
take longer than initially anticipated. The business continues to make
progress towards its objective; however, they have seen parcel volumes
impacted by the harmonisation of InPost and Yodel services, and secondly the
pace of growth in the obconnect new business pipeline has been slower than
planned. Digital payments business, Boku Inc., fell, although there was no
specific negative newsflow. Chemring sold off alongside the broader aerospace
and defence sector on increased optimism for a Ukraine-Russia peace deal.

 

November marks the end of the Company’s financial year, a year that has been
both disappointing and frustrating, and extremely challenging to navigate. The
narrowness of stock market returns has caught lots of attention in the US
around the performance of AI related shares, but returns in the UK have also
been narrow both in large and small and mid, where value has outperformed
growth again (a stylistic headwind to performance) and where quality has
underperformed (another headwind to performance). Indeed, 32 companies within
the 931 share benchmark have contributed +100% of the year-to-date return,
which includes 6x bids, 6x resource companies, and 6x value financials. Sadly,
60% of the companies in the benchmark underperformed through the year.
Frustratingly, many of our investments have executed well through the
financial year, beating and raising for the majority, indeed out net
upgrade/downgrade ratio (number of shares in long book upgrading versus
downgrading) is almost double the average of the benchmark. Many of our shares
really have delivered well but regrettably have not seen their share price
rewarded, probably due to the ongoing persistent outflows the sector has seen.

 

The outlook for the UK remains challenged, with softer growth, weaker
employment and higher inflation as the effects of the Government’s increase
in employers' national insurance have now transmitted into the economy. This,
coupled with a lack of confidence in the UK equity market more broadly, has
contributed to the ongoing outflows that we are seeing from the UK market,
particularly small and mid-caps, further pressuring valuations of thinly
traded shares.

 

We remain of the view that there is compelling value on offer in the UK small
and mid-cap complex but concede there are limited positive catalysts in the
near term to stem the sector outflows. M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) activity
is likely to continue at pace as Private Equity and Corporates take advantage
of this backdrop, whilst the broader de-equitisation from company share
buyback programmes continues.           

 

Given the ongoing headwinds facing the asset class the gross remains at c.116%
and the net came down marginally to c.110%.

 

We thank shareholders for your ongoing support.

 

23 December 2025

 

ENDS

 

Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.com/uk/thrg on the
internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3
(ICV terminal).                      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.

 

 

 Release  (https://mb.cision.com/Main/22398/4286302/3857678.pdf)  



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