Gresham House Strategic plc
Interim results for the six months to 30 September 2021
Gresham House Strategic plc (GHS or the Company) is pleased to announce its unaudited half year results for the period ended 30 September 2021.
Highlights for the period:
- Unaudited NAV Total Return performance in the six months to 30 September 2021 of 24.4% to 1867.6p/share, materially outperforming the FTSE All-Share Index and the FTSE Small Cap (ex-ITs) Index total returns of 7.9% and 13.5% respectively
- Total Shareholder Return (TSR) of 20.8% in the six months to 30 September 2021
- As at period end, TSR since inception in 2015 was 141.5%, outperforming the FTSE All-Share Index by 12.0% per annum as a result of both NAV performance and the discount narrowing
- Three-year TSR to 30 September 2021 of 79.9%, outperforming the FTSE All Share Index total return by +70.3%
- A number of profitable exits and a takeover bid of portfolio holdings including Augean (101.2% IRR, 9.0x Money Multiple), Ted Baker (130.7% IRR, 1.9x Money Multiple), and Northbridge Loan Notes (15.1% IRR, 1.5x Money Multiple)1
Simon Pyper , Interim Chairman of Gresham House Strategic plc, commented:
“This is a strong performance from this investment portfolio based on the specialist Strategic Public Equity mandate. We were pleased to see the investment thesis playing out in the bid for Augean and in the share price appreciation at RPS Group, which enabled us to realise our profits. We expect further corporate activity based on the underlying intrinsic values of the holdings.
After the period end the Board, appointed Harwood Capital as Investment Manager to actively manage and re-invest capital. This conclusion was clearly not supported by a substantial proportion of our shareholders, representing a majority of those that ordinarily cast their votes at shareholder meetings. As a result, the Board has agreed to commence an orderly realisation of the holdings and to return all the cash to shareholders and, in order to effect this, has proposed appropriate resolutions which will be put to the forthcoming general meeting of shareholders.”
Christopher Mills, Chief Executive Officer Harwood Capital
Harwood took on the investment management mandate on 11 October 2021. Since that date…
“Augean plc has been sold, as has the holding in RPS Group plc. There has also been a bid for Universe Group plc which when the proceeds are received, will increase the cash balance to approximately £30m. A detailed analysis of the portfolio has been undertaken based on the assumption that shareholders will vote in favour of liquidating the portfolio over the next two years. Whilst some holdings will no doubt be sold in the coming months, it is our view that the majority of the remaining portfolio should be sold over the course of 2023 as by then the impact of COVID will have hopefully abated and this will create the most value for shareholders.
We are mindful of any potential tax liability when realising the remaining assets and will continue to work with the Fund's tax adviser to achieve the optimum exit for shareholders”
The full version of the GHS interim report will be available on its website shortly at www.ghsplc.com .