Over the half year to the end of October 2014 F&C Global Smaller Companies delivered a return on net assets of 4.4% and a return to shareholders of 4.9%. The Company’s Benchmark is a blended index of the returns from the MSCI All Country World ex UK Small Cap Index (70%) and Numis UK Smaller (excluding investment companies) Index (30%). This produced a total return of 3.1% in the period. The interim dividend was increased from 2.5p to 2.65p.
The statement breaks down the performance of the portfolio by region and compares it to the performance of a local benchmark index. We’ve added the weighting of the portfolio at the end of the period.
USA +8.5% vs. +10.6% (underperformance), 41.6% of the portfolio
UK -0.3% vs. -4.8% (outperformance), 27.3% of the portfolio
Continental Europe -3.8% vs. -10.3% (outperformance) 10.7% of the portfolio
Japan +15.9% vs. +9.7% (outperformance) 8.7% of the portfolio
Rest of World +7.2% vs. +6.3% (Pacific ex Japan) and +0.9% (Latin America), 11.7% of the portfolio
As you can see from the numbers, performance was good everywhere except the US and even there the underperformance wasn’t too dramatic. Japanese small cap.s generated strong performance and the portfolio benefitted from holdings in Japanese funds managed by M&G and Aberdeen. In the UK performance was driven in part by takeover activity, a feature too within the European portfolio.
The £10m of 11.5% debenture will repaid at the end of the year and this has been replaced by £40m of 3.5% Convertible Unsecured Loan Stock with a maturity date in 2019.
FCS : F&C Global Smaller, beneficiary of takeover activity