During the six month period from 31 December 2015 to 30 June 2016, Weiss Korea Opportunity’s NAV increased by 10.94%, underperforming the reference MSCI Korea 25/50 Capped Index, which returned 14.81% in pounds sterling. The Company paid a dividend of 2.2416 pence per share on 28 June 2016.
Shareholders have an opportunity to realise all or part of their shareholding in the first half of 2017. The Board will contact shareholders
early in 2017 with the appropriate documentation.
At 30 June 2016, preferred shares made up 93% of the Company’s NAV. The remainder of the portfolio was held in cash and the iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF (EWY) as a liquidity buffer. In comparison, preferred shares made up 95% of the Company’s 31 December 2015 NAV. The trailing price-to-earnings ratio of the Company’s preferred share portfolio on 30 June 2016 was 7.3x, the trailing net dividend yield was 1.7% and the weighted average discount of the preferred shares in the portfolio was 36.4%.
The largest single company exposure as of 30 June 2016 was the preferred shares of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, at 20.91% of NAV. Samsung continued its first quarter common and preferred share buy-back program into the second quarter of 2016. The discount of Samsung preferred shares to common shares has been volatile, and the Manager continues to take advantage of opportunities to increase or reduce Samsung’s weight in the portfolio. The Manager believes that the discount changes are in part caused by institutional supply/demand imbalances from institutions repositioning their portfolios around the company buy-back program, and not from any fundamental changes to the value of Korean preferred shares in relation to common shares.
WKOF : Weiss Korea lags benchmark in H1