16th Aug 2013 08:25
The World Trust Fund
Interim Management Statement
for the quarter ended 30th June 2013
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 2013 to 30 June 2013 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 2013 to 30 June 2013:
The Fund’s diluted net asset value (NAV) fell by 3.1% to $3.638 in US$ terms (base currency), compared with a fall of 0.4% in the MSCI All Countries World Index. The Fund’s share price fell in Sterling terms by 5.3% to 207.5 pence. The discount to NAV (in Sterling) at the end of the period was 13.2%. The Fund’s underlying holdings had an average weighted discount of 22.9%.Long Term Performance:
| 1-Year | 3-Year** | 5-Year** | 10-Year** | ||||||
| Share Price £ | +16.1% | + 7.4% | + 0.2% | +7.6% | |||||
| Share Price US$* | +12.7% | + 8.0% | - 5.1% | +6.7% | |||||
| Net Asset Value £* | +17.2% | + 8.9% | + 1.4% | +7.5% | |||||
| Net Asset Value US$ | +13.8% | + 9.5% | - 4.0% | +6.8% | |||||
| MSCI All Countries World US$ | +16.6% | + 12.4% | + 2.3% | +7.6% |
*Converted using Foreign Exchange rate used by the administrator.
** Annualized.
| Top Five Holdings (%): | 30/06/13 | 31/03/13 | |||
| First Pacific Co. Ltd | 7.4% | 9.4% | |||
| General American Investors | 5.9% | 5.8% | |||
| Citic Securities | 5.3% | 6.4% | |||
| JPMorgan European Smaller Companies | 5.0% | 5.1% | |||
| Eurazeo | 4.7% | 4.2% |
| Top 5 Regional Breakdown (%) | 30/06/13 | 31/03/13 | |||
| Asia ex Japan | 27.8% | 35.5% | |||
| Europe (ex UK) | 24.4% | 25.3% | |||
| North America | 17.6% | 17.3% | |||
| Japan | 9.0% | 9.6% | |||
| United Kingdom | 8.5% | 9.3% |
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.
| 30/06/13 | 31/03/13 | ||||
| Long Exposure | 99.1% | 105.9% | |||
| Short Exposure | 0% | 0% | |||
| Net Exposure | 99.1% | 105.9% |
| Top 10 Country Weightings (%) | 30/06/13 | ||
| United States | 16.2% | ||
| China | 10.0% | ||
| Japan | 9.0% | ||
| Switzerland | 8.7% | ||
| United Kingdom | 8.5% | ||
| Philippines | 5.3% | ||
| France | 4.5% | ||
| Singapore | 4.2% | ||
| Indonesia | 2.6% | ||
| Turkey | 2.4% |
Leverage:
As at 30 June 2013 the Fund had no leverage.
Material Transactions and Events:
Exercise of warrants
On 11 April 2013, following the exercise of 3,010,174 warrants, the same number of new ordinary shares were admitted to the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange. Following the exercise, 7,794,037 warrants remain in issue.
Tender offer
A tender offer was triggered following the year end as a result of the Fund’s average discount over the 90 day period ended 31 March 2013 being in excess of 10 per cent. On 2 August 2013, shareholders approved a tender offer of up to 15 per cent. of the Fund’s shares in issue at a 2 per cent. discount to diluted net asset value per share (less the costs and expenses of the tender offer). Accordingly, on 13 August 2013 the Fund repurchased a total of 7,026,053 ordinary shares at a tender price of 238.4841 pence per share.
Following the implementation of the tender offer the Fund has 50,025,585 shares in issue (including 10,211,277 shares which are held in treasury and for which the exercise of voting rights is suspended).Listing Category: Premium – Equity Closed-ended Investment Fund
Copyright Business Wire 2013
Related Shares:
WTR.L