Overview
Aberforth Smaller Companies aims to achieve a net asset value total return (with dividends reinvested) greater than the return on the Numis Smaller Companies Index (Excluding Investment Companies) over the long term by investing in a diversified portfolio of small UK quoted companies. The portfolio is diversified and will normally consist of investments in over 80 individual companies. In seeking investments the approach will be fundamental in nature involving regular contact with the management of prospective and existing investments in conjunction with rigorous financial analysis of these companies. The emphasis within the portfolio will reflect the desire to invest in companies whose shares represent relatively attractive value within a given stockmarket environment.
You can access the company’s website here.
Fundamentals
Price
Research History
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09 Feb 2023 40 min read
QuotedData’s Economic and Political Monthly Roundup February 2023
Economic and Political Monthly Roundup Investment companies | Monthly | February 2023 A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairs and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage […]
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10 Sep 2020 5 min read
QuotedData’s Economic Roundup – September 2020
Economic & Political Roundup Kindly sponsored by Allianz A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell […]
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10 Aug 2020 4 min read
QuotedData’s Economic Roundup – August 2020
Economic & Political Roundup Kindly sponsored by Allianz A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell […]
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08 Jun 2020 7 min read
QuotedData’s Investment Companies Roundup – June 2020
Investment Companies Roundup Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford and Aberdeen Standard Investments Table of contents New research In this issue Performance data Discounts and premiums Money in and out Major news stories Income Events Guide Appendix – Performance by sector full list New research Here is a list of research we published over May: GCP Infrastructure – […]
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17 Apr 2020 8 min read
QuotedData’s Investment Companies Quarterly Review – First Quarter 2020
Investment Companies Quarterly Roundup Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford and Aberdeen Standard Investments Table of contents In this issue Performance data Positive movers Negative movers Discounts and premiums Getting more expensive Getting cheaper Money in and out Money in Money out Major news stories Upcoming Events New research The legal bit Unprecedented times We have knitted […]
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07 Apr 2020 8 min read
QuotedData’s Investment Companies Roundup – April 2020
Investment Companies Roundup Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford and Aberdeen Standard Investments Table of contents New research In this issue Performance data Discounts and premiums Money in and out Major news stories Income Events Guide Appendix – Performance by sector full list New research Here is a list of research we published over March: An update note […]
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07 Feb 2020 6 min read
QuotedData’s Economic Roundup – February 2020
Economic & Political Roundup Kindly sponsored by Polar Capital and Allianz A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you […]
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07 Aug 2019 5 min read
QuotedData’s economic roundup – August 2019
Economic & Political Roundup A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell any of the […]
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05 Jul 2019 3 min read
QuotedData’s investment companies roundup – July 2019
Investment Companies Roundup New research Over June, we published notes on CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income, Standard Life Private Equity and Shires Income. You can read all these notes by clicking on the links above or by visiting www.quoteddata.com. In this issue Performance data – there was a greater appetite for risk in June as […]
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15 Aug 2018 1 min read
QuotedData’s Economic round up – August 2018
QuotedData’s Economic round up – August 2018 is a collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell […]
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25 Apr 2018 1 min read
Quarterly investment companies roundup – First quarter 2018
Quarterly investment companies roundup – First quarter 2018 Quarterly investment companies roundup – First quarter 2018 – Global equity markets declined in the first quarter of 2018. Concerns about US interest rate rises were the feature of the first half of the quarter. However, worries about global trade took over in the second part, particularly […]
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07 Feb 2018 1 min read
QuotedData’s economic round up – February 2018
QuotedData’s economic round up – February 2018 is a collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell […]
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03 Aug 2017 2 min read
QuotedData’s economic round up – August 2017
QuotedData’s economic round up – August 2017 – is a collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairmen and investment managers of investment companies – have a read and make your own minds up. Please remember that nothing in this note is designed to encourage you to buy or sell […]
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08 Nov 2016 1 min read
QuotedData investment companies roundup – November 2016
Our latest roundup of news; price, NAV and discount movements; flows in and out of the sector and report on full year dividends announced over the month of October 2016. november-investment-companies-roundup-2
News
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30 May 2025 3 min read
Betting on a small cap revival
It was great this week to talk to three managers who are investing in UK small and medium-sized companies – if you missed it, you can watch the recording back here. Their message seems to be that portfolio companies are trading well, and coping with a macroeconomic environment that has at times been unhelpful, yet […]
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31 Jan 2025 2 min read
Aberforth Smaller Companies beats benchmark in good year for UK equities
Aberforth Smaller Companies (ASL) has published its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2024, during which it provided NAV and share price total returns of 12.1% and 10.7% respectively, both ahead of ASL’s benchmark – the Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies Index (excluding investment companies), whose total return in 2024 was 9.5%. It also […]
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13 Dec 2024 5 min read
From outflows to inflows: Has the UK equity market finally turned a corner?
It is a well-documented fact that international investors have been shunning the UK equity market in recent years, leaving it cheap versus other regions. The reasons why have already been well-rehearsed, so I will not dwell on them here, but selected highlights would include the Brexit referendum in 2016 and the economic uncertainty that created; […]
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01 Feb 2024 5 min read
Value stocks unusually cheap says Aberforth
Aberforth Smaller Companies has published results for the year that ended on 31 December 2023. Its NAV return lagged that of its index benchmark (Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies ex Investment Companies), returning 8.2% to the index’s 10.1%. A small widening of the discount meant that shareholders got a return of 8.0%. The dividend was upped […]
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23 May 2023 1 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 23 May 2023
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 23 May 2023: Harmony Energy Impact’s (HEIT) NAV was 6.7% lower at end April (117.1p, down from 125.5p at end January) after it cut the power price forecasts used in its NAV calculation. Aberforth Smaller Companies (ASL) has renewed its £130m revolving credit facility with The Royal Bank of Scotland International […]
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30 Jan 2023 3 min read
Aberforth Smaller Companies benefited from M&A in 2022
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust (ASL) has published its annual results for the year to 31 December 2022. During the period, ASL provided an NAV and share price total returns of -10.4% and -7.3% respectively (as the discount narrowed from 12.6% to 9.8% over the course of the year). ASL’s chairman, Richard Davidon, comments that while […]
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19 Aug 2022 3 min read
QD view – small is beautiful
It has been a tough first half for smaller companies, with the FTSE SmallCap trailing the FTSE 100 by around 13% for the year to date. While small companies are said to have sustained their operational performance, sentiment has run against them. Nevertheless, it is not the moment to give up on the sector: the […]
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27 Jul 2022 2 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 27 July 2022
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 27 July 2022: Aberforth Smaller Companies (ASL) has posted its half-year results for the six months to 30 June 2022. During the period, its NAV fell by 16.8% while its share price fell by 18.4%. However, this remains ahead of its benchmark, the Numis Smaller Companies Index (excluding investment companies) which […]
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28 Jul 2021 2 min read
QuotedData’s morning briefing 28 July 2021
In QuotedData’s morning briefing 28 July 2021: Literacy Capital (BOOK) has acquired a majority stake in OFJ Spring Topco Limited, the holding company for Oxygen Freejumping, which is an operator of trampoline and adventure parks in the UK, with four sites in England. The investment will provide Oxygen Freejumping with fresh capital enabling the business to […]
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30 Jan 2020 1 min read
Aberforth overcomes market’s growth bias
Aberforth overcomes market’s growth bias – Aberforth Smaller Companies beat its benchmark over the year ended 31 December 2019, returning 26.9% against 25.2% for the Numis Smaller Companies Index (excluding investment companies). A dramatic narrowing of the discount translated into a 39.8% return for shareholders. The underlying dividend is up 5.8% to 32p and there is […]
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17 May 2017 1 min read
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust renews £125m unsecured revolving debt facility
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust has announced that it has renewed its existing unsecured £125 million Revolving Debt Facility with The Royal Bank of Scotland plc for a further three years. The facility bears interest at 0.80 per cent over LIBOR and is due to expire on 15 June 2020. Aberforth Smaller Companies is the largest trust […]
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30 Jan 2017 1 min read
Board asks Aberforth Smaller shareholders to back continuation
Over the year to the end of December 2016, Aberforth Smaller Companies delivered a return on net assets of 5.8%, lagging its benchmark which returned 11.1%. The discount widened and so the return to shareholders was -4.2%. They are paying dividends for the year of 27.35p, which represents an increase of 5.2% on 2015. The […]
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29 Jul 2016 1 min read
Aberforth Smallers underperforms in H1
For the six months to 30 June 2016, the net asset value total return of Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust was -11.3%, which compares with a total return of -5.6% from the Company’s investment benchmark, the Numis Smaller Companies Index excluding Investment Companies (NSCI (XIC)). The FTSE All-Share Index, which is dominated by larger companies, generated a […]
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27 Jan 2016 1 min read
Aberforth Smaller Companies matches benchmark in 2015
Aberforth Smaller Companies has published its results for the year ended 31 December 2015 (pretty fast!), over 2015 the net asset value total return was 10.2%, more or less matching the 10.6% return posted by the Numis Smaller Companies (excluding investment companies) Index that the fund uses as its benchmark. The share price return was […]
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30 Jul 2015 1 min read
Good start to 2015 for Aberforth Smaller
Aberforth Smaller Companies interims for the six months ended 30 June 2015 show the fund generating a total return on net assets of 15.3%, well ahead of the 11.8% return on the Numis Smaller Companies ex Investment Companies Index. The return to shareholders was 12.9% as the discount widened from 7.7% to 9.8%. The interim […]
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13 May 2015 1 min read
Aberforth funds cut management fees
Aberforth Geared Income Trust is cutting the “asset fee” element of its management fee from 1% to 0.9% with effect from 1 July 2015. This is obviously welcome news for its shareholders but it is odd that it didn’t simplify its fee at the same time – from 1 July the fee is: 0.9% of the […]
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29 Jan 2015 1 min read
Aberforth reports marginal outperformance
Aberforth Smaller Companies reported a 0.7% fall in its asset value on a total return basis over 2014, better than the -1.9% return generated by the Numis Smaller Companies excluding Investment Companies Index. The return to shareholders over the period was 0.1%. the final dividend was 17p, making a total of 24.75p for the year, an […]
Upcoming Events
Videos
In The Press
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14 Oct 2024 1 min read
Stocks that investment trust managers are backing for a UK recovery
By James Carthew, QuotedData for Trustnet, 14 October 2024: After a long period in the doldrums, there are glimmers of hope that investors might start to favour UK small-caps once again. Small-caps tend to outperform large-caps over the long term and the UK market is still very much cheaper than the US. With that in […]
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17 Jun 2024 1 min read
10 experts name their top investment trust bargain
by Jennifer Hill from interactive investor, 17th June 2024: Discounts are wide across the investment trust universe, giving investors plenty of bargain-hunting potential. The average discount across 288 investment trusts that publish net asset values (NAVs) was -17.7% at the end of May, compared to -5% across 241 trusts five years ago, according to an […]
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11 Jan 2024 1 min read
Investment trust bargains: how to find them and where to look in 2024
by Kyle Caldwell from interactive investor, 11th January 2024: There are various ways to improve the odds of investment success, including having a diversified portfolio, investing over the long term, and rebalancing a couple of times a year. Another one is to keep a close eye on valuations and seek out undervalued areas of the […]
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18 Dec 2023 1 min read
Bagging a bargain: 13 investment trusts pros say offer great value
by Jennifer Hill from interactive investor, 18th December 2023: Investors looking to bag a bargain need look no further than the investment trust sector where risk-off sentiment has this year sent discounts to levels not seen since the financial crisis. At the end of 2021 – before the war in Ukraine fuelled energy and food […]
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20 Mar 2023 1 min read
Buy and hold versus changing style: which fund approach is best?
by Jennifer Hill from interactive investor, 20 March 2023: Some fund managers stick to their knitting irrespective of the wider macroeconomic backdrop; others have more flexibility to change their strategy to respond to market conditions. But which approach is best? Are investors better sticking with funds that adopt a long-term buy and hold strategy or […]
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20 Jan 2023 2 min read
Investment trust bargains: how to find them and where to look in 2023
by Kyle Caldwell from interactive investor, 19th January 2023: We explain the tricks of the trade to find potential discount opportunities, and name the three areas where analysts are finding plenty of value in 2023… The first thing to point out is that while investment trust discounts offer opportunities to buy a basket of investments […]
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16 Jan 2023 1 min read
Investment trusts are going cheap in the stockpicker sales
David Brenchley, The Sunday Times, January 15 2023 The January sales are still on but you might find it more profitable to go shopping in the stock market instead. When share prices fall as sharply as they have since mid-2021, investors will inevitably be on the lookout for bargain opportunities. Investment trusts are trading at […]
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11 Oct 2022 1 min read
Bargain Hunter: 12 investment trusts near biggest discount in five years
by Kyle Caldwell, interactive investor, 11th October 2022: Investment trust discounts have widened notably since the beginning of the year, rising from 1.5% to 15.7% for the average discount, according to analyst Winterflood. The bear market that’s played out this year in response to high levels of inflation, increases in interest rates and geopolitical tensions, […]
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23 Dec 2021 2 min read
Inflation worries? Not if you chose these funds
David Brenchley, December 19 2021, The Sunday Times A sharp rise in the cost of living will have forced many people to accept more risk in how they take investment income in retirement. To ensure that their income keeps pace with their spending, many will be looking for investments that yield more than the present […]
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07 Jan 2021 1 min read
Questions of Trust
QUESTIONS OF TRUST In: Portfolio Adviser, The Professionals’ Guide to Value Investing James Carthew, Director, QuotedData If you believe last November’s bounce in value stocks heralds the start of a renaissance for the strategy, who are the potential beneficiaries in the investment trust sector? Last year turned out to be a bumper one for all […]
