Portfolio Update
25 Abril 2008 - 4:49AM
UK Regulatory
MERRILL LYNCH BRITISH SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST plc
All information is at 31 March 2008 and unaudited.
Performance at month end is calculated on a capital only basis
One Three One Three Five
Month Months Year Years Years
Net asset value -2.4% -4.1% -14.2% 44.1% 191.9%
Share price -6.8% 0.5% -19.8% 33.9% 199.1%
HGSC ex Inv Trust + AIM* -3.6% -7.3% -18.8% 15.4% 113.9%
Sources: BlackRock and Datastream
*With effect from 1 September 2007 the Hoare Govett Smaller Companies plus AIM
(ex Investment companies) Index replaced the FTSE SmallCap Index (ex Investment
Companies) as the Company's benchmark. For the one year, three year and five
year periods above the index has been blended to reflect this.
At month end
Net asset value (debt at par value): 398.06p
Net asset value (debt at fair value): 392.94p
Share price: 317.00p
Discount to NAV (debt at par value): 20.4%
Discount to NAV (debt at fair value): 19.3%
Net yield: 1.5%
Total assets: �209.2m
Gearing: 8.0%
Ordinary shares in issue^: 48,509,708
(^excluding 1,483,815 shares held in treasury)
Ten Largest Sector
Weightings % of Total Assets
Support Services 14.5
Software & Computer Services 13.0
Oil & Gas Producers 11.0
Industrial Engineering 9.5
General Financial 8.5
Industrial Metals & Mining 8.0
Aerospace & Defence 4.8
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 3.9
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 3.4
Chemicals 3.3
----
Total 79.9
====
Ten Largest Equity Investments (in alphabetical order)
Company
Albidon
BSS
Civica
Dechra Pharmaceuticals
Hill & Smith
ITE Group
Rathbone Brothers
Spirax-Sarco
Ultra Electronics
Victrex
Commenting on the markets, Mike Prentis, representing the Investment Manager
noted:
During March the Company's NAV fell by 2.4%. The benchmark index fell by 3.6%
and the FTSE100 fell by 3.1%.
In relative terms, the best stock contribution came from Civica, which
attracted a bid from private equity which looks likely to go through. Various
core holdings also performed well including Aveva Group, Rathbone Brothers, WSP
Group, Spirax-Sarco, Ultra Electronics, BSS Group, and Mouchel, all large
holdings. In each case, results or trading updates were good. Emerald Energy
shares also performed well on the back of further good drilling news from its
Syrian acreage, which should be producing oil by the end of the calendar year.
The worst performers during the month were Axon and Fidessa. In both cases poor
share price performances were more driven by worries about possible weakness in
IT spending by the financial sector, rather than any specific newsflow.
There were no new holdings of any size, but we completed the sale of our
holdings in Dunelm and Colliers CRE. Having sold the former we now have no
exposure to general retailers. The latter provides services within the real
estate sector, also a sector in which we are underweight. Our portfolio
positioning is essentially unchanged.
Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.co.uk/its on the
internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV
terminal).
25 April 2008
END
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