13th Mar 2020 08:56
(Alliance News) - European Assets Trust PLC sees strong asset growth in 2019 but falls short of benchmark growth.
At December 31, the trust recorded a net asset value per share of EUR1.37, 20% higher than the EUR1.14 seen at the same point the year before.
Net assets were also up 20% over 2019, rising to EUR493.5 million from EUR411.6 million.
European Assets, which is managed by BMO Investment, declared an annual dividend of 7.02 pence in 2019, 17% higher than the 5.99p distributed in 2018.
As a result, European Assets's NAV total return in 2019, in sterling terms, was 19.8% while it returned 26.9% in euro terms.
The trust's benchmark - the EMIX Smaller European Cos (ex UK) Index - added 20.6% in sterling terms and 27.8% in euro terms.
Chair Jack Perry said: "2019 was a good year for European smaller companies and your company, allowing us to announce an attractive increase in dividend. Depressed sentiment leading into the year helped provide the platform for a strong first quarter as the markets yet again took their lead from central banks with both the US and European authorities signalling that monetary support would continue."
Investment Manager Sam Cosh added: "Our performance in 2019 was characterised by good stock picking which was partially offset by our sector allocation. Our top performer was ASM International, the Dutch listed semiconductor equipment supplier, which rose 168.5% in sterling terms. Operationally the company's performance was outstanding with the release of consistently strong results, which were particularly impressive when set alongside a sector that struggled. The shares have also been supported by share buy backs as the company returned some of their strong balance sheet back to shareholders."
Looking ahead, Perry commented that it would be "unwise" to provide a specific outlook due to the "unprecedented nature" of the deadly coronavirus.
"What we know is that the longer the epidemic endures, the more damaging it will be on the global economy and on stock markets," Perry said.
Cosh added: "Turning to the portfolio we are in the fortunate position not to be leveraged heading into this market volatility. This allows us to look at this period constructively. Whilst we will not do anything rash, we will use equity market falls to slowly add some quality companies to the portfolio."
Shares in European Assets Trust were 1.7% higher in London on Friday morning at 81.34 pence each.
By Paul McGowan; [email protected]
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