MIGO Opportunities has published results covering the 12 month period ended 30 April 2024. The NAV rose to 362.6p (2023: 328.6p), giving a total return of +11.3%. The share price ended the year at 346.0p, giving a total share price return of +9.6%. The company’s performance objective is to beat the return on SONIA plus 2% per annum. That worked out at 6.9% over the period. At the year-end, the shares traded at a discount of 4.6% to net asset value per share, having traded at a discount of 3.1% at the 2023 year-end. In comparison, the unweighted average discount across the whole investment companies universe has expanded from 11.03% to 19.98% over the same period. 1,760,000 shares were repurchased over the period.
A final dividend of 0.6p per share will be paid on 4 October 2024. This is only the third dividend to be paid in the company’s history – expenses usually exceed revenues.
The trust is now 20 years old. Over the 20 years since its launch on 6 April 2004, its NAV per share has risen by 257.1% and the share price by 259.1% (both total return figures). Comparative returns for SONIA plus 2% and the Numis All Share index have been 112.5% and 291.8% respectively. With the current difficulties in the investment trust market, its managers believe the return outlook for the trust is one of the best that they have seen in its history.
The chairman says “The issues facing the sector have included over regulation, competition from passive investment vehicles, disinvestment from the UK market and consolidation in the wealth management sector. While it is worrying to consider the future of parts of the sector, market conditions certainly favour our investment manager’s style of searching for future themes at current discounts in the investment trust universe. That is to some degree a silver lining to this particular cloud.”
The report goes into some detail on the portfolio (too much so to replicate here) and is always worth a read.
Realisation opportunity
For those that don’t share the manager and board’s enthusiasm, shareholders have the right to elect to realise all or part of their holdings at three yearly intervals. As the last realisation opportunity occurred in 2021, the next realisation opportunity is due this year. To reduce the costs for the company and to make the process more streamlined, no circular will be mailed to shareholders. Instead, those shareholders who would like to realise some or all of their holdings are invited to download the necessary documents from MIGO’s website. To facilitate the 2024 realisation opportunity, two special resolutions will be put to shareholders at the forthcoming AGM.
[The trust’s managers moved to AVI during the year and we think they should continue to flourish there. There is a vital role for funds of funds such as this in the sector and we hope that a resolution of issues such as cost disclosure will allow the trust to re-expand in time]
