HVTR : Henderson Value Trust continuation vote looms
At this year’s AGM shareholders of Henderson Value Trust will be asked to approve the continuation of the company in its current form. The company’s year end results make disappointing reading for shareholders but the Board is adamant that things are on an improving trend and the company deserves to survive.
Over the year that ended on 30 September 2014 Henderson Value Trust’s net asset value returned 1.6% as compared to an 11.9% return on the FTSE World Index. The fund’s discount narrowed a little however and so the return to shareholders was 3.0%. The dividend has been doubled to 3.0p. The Board says that since the fund has a significant bias towards emerging markets – much more so than the current benchmark, they will be thinking about whether the FTSE World Index is an appropriate benchmark going forward.
To address the company’s discount, currently around 14%, the Board is using tender offers. Currently they are planning a tender offer for up to 10% of the outstanding shares at a discount of 2% to net asset value less costs. They say this offer will be followed by a second tender offer for 10% of the shares. This is expected to be at a discount of 5% to net asset value per share, but only if the Henderson Value Trust’s shares have traded at an average discount wider than 10% during the twelve months to 30 September 2016. These tender offers will be conditional upon the passing of the continuation vote in December 2014. Full details of the first tender offer will be announced next week when the tender offer documentation will be despatched to shareholders along with the Annual Report.
The managers’ report says the investments that had the greatest positive influence on the fund were Oryx International Growth and Ecofin Water & Power – these two added about 1.1% to performance in total. On the negative side of things, holdings in Baring Vostok cost them 0.7% and io Adria cost them 0.5% (both of these are unlisted).