Manchester & London has published results for the year ended 31 July 2015. These show that the fund just outperformed its benchmark, the Dow Jones U.K. Total Stock Market Total Return Index, returning 5.0% on net assets vs. 4.8% for the index.
The Directors are proposing a final ordinary dividend per share of 1.70p and a final special dividend per share of 0.25p for the financial year 2015. This means that, on a per share basis, the dividends proposed or paid out in respect of the 2015 financial year total to 3.2p as ordinary dividends and 2.8p as special dividends. On a total ordinary and special
basis, these dividends are 56.4% lower than the total dividends paid in respect of the 2014 financial year.
The manager says oil and gas investments cost the fund 4.3% and mining investments cost 0.7% while consumer goods exposure added 3.5%.
Within IT, key positive contributors in this segment included Syngenta, which contributed
1.0% to portfolio performance, driven by a takeover approach from Monsanto. This position was sold prior to the year end, as it looked unlikely that the two sides would reach an agreement. Alphabet also contributed 0.8% to performance, while Apple and Amazon contributed 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. Their worst performers were Stratasys (-0.6%) and Baidu (-0.5%), both of which have been divested.
In consumer goods, Pernod Ricard SA contributed 0.9% to performance, Unilever plc, Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget and Diageo plc each contributed 0.7%, Heineken NV and Davide Campari-Milano Spa both contributed 0.6% and Beiersforf AG contributed 0.4%. Though PZ Cussons plc had a better H2 than H1, it was still a drag on performance for the year, contributing -0.8%.
In healthcare, performance was largely driven by Shire plc, which contributed 1.3% while GlaxoSmithKline plc was the largest drag, contributing -0.2%.
Other key contributors included IPOs such as Euronext, P2P Global Investments and VPC
Speciality Lending, each of which contributed 0.2%.
MNL : Manchester & London cuts dividend as performance stabilises