Gresham House Strategic plc
Full year results for the year ending 31 March 2021
44% NAV growth driven by over £14 million of new investments, successful exits, and material engagement with portfolio companies
Gresham House Strategic plc (GHS or the Company) is pleased to announce its audited results for the year ended 31 March 2021.
Financial highlights
- GHS Total Shareholder Return (TSR)[1] of 59.3% in the year to 31 March 2021 and 12-month NAV total return[2] performance of 44.3% to 1,515.4 pence[3] per share
- Three-year TSR to 31 March 2021 of 81.6%, placed GHS 2/25 in the AIC UK Smaller Companies' sector, outperforming the FTSE All Share Index total return by +71.7%.
- 20% increase in the proposed final dividend
Investment Management highlights
- Very active period with £14.9m deployed into seven new holdings by the investment team
- Further portfolio re-balancing progress within the period, exiting a number of long-term holdings including Infrastrata plc (IRR +43.9%), MJ Hudson plc (IRR +8.8%) and Be Heard plc (Convertible Loan Note IRR +22.2%, Equity IRR -37%)
- Material engagement across the portfolio supporting the unlocking and driving of shareholder value driving operational and strategic changes
- GHS ended the year fully-invested in 16 companies with the top ten representing 82% of NAV
Post-period end
- NAV has made further progress post-period end, predominantly driven by strength in one of our long held and higher performing investments Augean plc; increasing 13.6% to 1721.9 pence in the eight weeks to 31 May 2021
- Post period end, the company's discount to NAV widened from 6.3% to 14.3% in the eight weeks to 31 May 2021
- David Potter has resigned as Chairman, with Helen Sinclair stepping in as interim Chairman
- Graham Bird has been appointed to the Board as non-independent non-executive Director
- The company has initiated a strategic review.
Helen Sinclair, Interim Chairman of Gresham House Strategic plc, commented:
“We are pleased that the strategic public equity strategy has continued to bear fruit. We look forward to further NAV growth, while narrowing the share price discount and are pleased to continue growing our dividends ahead of market growth rates.”
Laurence Hulse, Deputy Fund Manager said:
“There has rarely been a more important time for investors to have a robust investment philosophy and process than in tackling the sorts of challenges presented in 2020. Gresham House's twenty-year-old Strategic Public Equity approach provides exactly that. The prolonged period of volatility allowed us to focus on severely undervalued small companies, an opportunity the team grasped with both hands. We made significant investments into a number of companies where we identified exciting investment theses driven by tangible catalysts which we will support through our active engagement approach.”