Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust, managed by Harry Nimmo (pictured), has announced its results for the year ended 30 June 2015 during which, the Company’s diluted net asset value total return was 14.2%, beating a total return of 10.4% for the Company’s benchmark. The manager describes the year as being characterised by steady if unspectacular out-performance. In terms of sector exposure the trust was helped by overweight positions in healthcare, retail and software and a decent position in the large real estate sector. It was also helpful that the Trust was generally light in oil & gas, mining and engineering sectors. However, the trust suffered from being light in housebuilders, building materials and other stocks that have benefitted from the buoyancy of the UK housing market.
In terms of portfolio evolution, the key sector changes include increased exposure to healthcare, software and leisure sectors. Exposure to high growth or more speculative growth businesses were reduced. Oil & gas and engineering stocks with oil & gas orientated businesses were sold. The Trust bought back into Restaurant Group (the manager says the company is still rolling out its successful formats Frankie & Bennys, Chiquito’s and Coast to Coast) whilst another repurchase was Greggs (the manager says that under the influence of a new CEO it is revamping its offering and reinvigorating its brand). NMC Health, the Abu Dhabi based hospital group was added. Profits were taken in Supergroup, BTG, Aveva and Optimal Payments, whilst Hargreaves Lansdown, now a FTSE100 company was sold along with Keller. Other holdings sold completely include Xaar, Rotork,Vectura,Pressure Technologies and Utilitywise.
The undiluted revenue return per share was 6.76p, an increase of 33.9% over 2014, reflecting strong dividend growth from the portfolio and high levels of special dividends (2.05p per share). The company is proposing a final dividend of 4.40p per share, which together with the interim dividend of 1.40p paid in April, will give a total dividend for the year of 5.80p (a 28.9% increase on 2014).
Standard Life UK Smallers – ‘steady if unspectacular out-performance’ : SLS