The F&C Global Smaller Companies PLC

The Foreign & Colonial Global Smaller Companies PLC is a London Listed Investment Trust.

http://www.fandc.com/fandc-global-smaller-companies/

A £775m fund. It is a fund of funds, as it holds shares in other investment companies that are investing in global smaller companies.

Its top ten holdings are:-

Eastspring Investments Japan Smaller Companies 4.6%
Aberdeen Global Japanese Smaller Companies 3.9%
Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos Inv Trust 3.0%
Pinebridge Asia ex Japan Small Cap Equity 2.0%
Utilico Emerging Markets 1.6%
HSBC GIF Asia ex Japan Equity Smaller Companies 1.4%
Aberdeen Global Asian Smaller Companies 1.3%
Manulife Global Asian Smaller Companies 1.2%
Alleghany 1.1%
Franklin Financial Network 1.1%

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=11839&record_search=1&search_phrase=fcs

A yield of 0.8%

The Schroder Income Growth Fund plc is a London listed Investment Trust.

http://www.schroders.com/en/uk/asset-manager/fund-centre/funds-in-focus/schroder-income-growth-fund-plc/

It has raised its dividend consistently for the last 21 years.

Its holdings are:-

Assura PLC Ord GBP0.1
AstraZeneca USD0.25
Aviva Ord GBP0.25
BAE Systems Ord GBP0.025
Bellway Ord GBP0.125
BP Plc Ord USD0.25
British American Tobacco Ord GBP0.25
BT Group Ord GBP0.05
Burberry Group Ord GBP0.0005
Centrica Ord GBP0.061728
Daily Mail & General Trust Ord NV GBP0.125
ENI EUR1
Galp Energia SGPS SA-B EUR1
GlaxoSmithKline Ord GBP0.25
Greencore Group Plc EUR0.01
Halfords Group Ord GBP0.01
HSBC Holdings Ord USD0.50
IMI Plc Ord GBP0.2857
Imperial Brands Plc Ord GBP0.10
Intermediate Capital Group PLC Ord GBP0.2625
ITV Ord GBP0.10
John Laing Group PLC WI Ord GBP0.10
John Wood Group Ord GBP0.04285714
Laird Ord GBP0.28125
Legal & General Ord GBP0.025
Lloyds Banking Group Ord GBP0.1
London Stock Exchange Group GBP0.069186
Micro Focus International Ord GBP0.1
NEX Group Plc GBP0.175
Nordea NPV
Pearson Ord GBP0.25
Prudential Ord GBP0.05
Relx PLC Ord GBP0.1444
Rio Tinto Ord GBP0.10
Roche Holding Gsh NPV
Royal Dutch Shell ‘A’ EUR0.07
Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ EUR0.07
Smurfit Kappa Group (LN) EUR0.001
Taylor Wimpey GBP0.01
TP Icap Plc Ord GBP0.25
Unilever Ord GBP0.031
Unite Group Ord GBP0.25
Vodafone Group Ord USD0.2095238

Total market value of investments £225,977,655

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=13404&record_search=1&search_phrase=schroder

A yield of over 3.5%

On Friday 25th August, Greencoat UK Wind PLC paid out its August dividend. A member of the FTSE-250 Index.

http://www.greencoat-ukwind.com/

A dividend of 1.6225p per share.

The total voting rights in UK Greencoat Wind is 736,700,850

http://otp.investis.com/clients/uk/greencoat/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=2184&newsid=858924

Thus the cost of the dividend:-

736,700,850 shares x £0.016225 = £11,952,971.29

That is £11million

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=7013076&action=

A 5% yield.

The British Empire Trust is a London Listed FTSE Investment Fund.

http://www.british-empire.co.uk/

Managed by Asset Value Investors

http://www.assetvalueinvestors.com/

The British Empire Trust plc (“British Empire”) was established in 1889 in order to generate profits for its shareholders by investing in the shares of other companies

today is has assets of over £750 million

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=11153

A yield of over 1.6%

It’s top 30 holdings are:-

Wendel Investment Holding Company 1.28% holding    6.25% of the fund
Jardine Strategic Investment Holding Company 0.16% holding  5.94% of the fund
NB Private Equity Partners Investment Company 9.99% holding  5.27% of the fund
JPEL Private Equity Investment Holding Company 15.58% holding  5.28% of the fund
Investor AB ‘A’ Investment Holding Company 0.47% holding  5.07% of the fund
Riverstone Energy Investment Company 4.57% holding   4.90% of the fund
Pargesa Investment Holding Company 1.10% holding   4.90% of the fund
Symphony International Holdings Investment Company 12.91% holding 4.68% of the fund
Tetragon Financial Investment Company 4.231% holding   4.09% of the fund
Adler Real Estate Real Estate Company 6.88% holding   3.99% of the fund
Aker ASA Investment Holding Company 1.69% holding   3.96% of the fund
Better Capital (2009) Investment Company 17.44% holding   3.81% of the fund
Toyota Industries Investment Holding Company 0.28% holding  3.64% of the fund
Kinnevik AB Investment Holding Company 0.69% holding   3.56% of the fund
AP Alternative Assets Investment Company 1.55% holding   3.47% of the fund
Exor Investment Holding Company 0.31% holding    3.16% of the fund
Hudson’s Bay Retail Holding Company 2.53% holding   3.03% of the fund
Digital Garage Investment Holding Company 3.67% holding   2.93% of the fund
DIC Asset Real Estate Company 4.85% holding    2.70% of the fund
Tokyo Broadcasting Investment Holding Company 0.93% holding  2.60% of the fund
SC Fondul Proprietatea – GDR Investment Company 0.46% holding  2.53% of the fund
Swire Pacific ‘B’ Investment Holding Company 0.56% holding  2.37% of the fund
Vietnam Phoenix Fund ‘C’ Investment Company 22.302% holding  1.93% of the fund
GP Investments Investment Company 14.62% holding   1.74% of the fund
Athene Holding Investment Company 0.25% holding    0.79% of the fund
SC Fondul Proprietatea Investment Company 0.03% holding   0.78% of the fund
Dragon Capital Vietnam Property Real Estate Company 15.4% holding 0.64% of the fund
LMS Capital Investment Company 12.05% holding    0.50% of the fund
Ashmore Global Opportunities – GBP Investment Company 12.572% holding 0.30% of the fund
Dolphin Capital Investors Real Estate Company 2.52% holding  0.18% of the fund

Top thirty investments  94.99 % of the Total Fund

The Carador Income Fund PLC is a London listed investment fund, managed by GSO / Blackstone Debt Funds Management LLC.

http://www.carador.co.uk/

The investment objective of Carador Income Fund PLC (the “Company” or “Carador”) is to produce attractive and
stable returns, with low volatility compared to equity markets, by investing in a diversified portfolio of senior notes of
collateralised loan obligations (“CLOs”), collateralised by senior secured bank loans and equity and mezzanine
tranches of CLOs.

Its top ten holdings:-

1. First Data Corp 1.01% of the fund
2. Transdigm 0.80% of the fund
3. Valeant Pharmaceuticals 0.79% of the fund
4. Dell Inc 0.77% of the fund
5. Calpine Corp 0.73% of the fund
6. Univision Communications 0.73% of the fund
7. Centurylink Inc 0.71% of the fund
8. Community Health 0.70% of the fund
9. Albertson 0.68% of the fund
10. Asurion Corp 0.64% of the fund

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=1927542&action=

UK Student Loans.

The media and politicans have been talking about the level of student debt.
No one can explain properly the level of debt.

Student loan debt in the UK has risen to more than £100bn for the first time, underlining the rising costs young people face in order to get a university education

The reason for the ballon in debt is simple. The rise in student debt has been driven partly by rules introduced in 2012, allowing universities in England to charge up to £9,000 a year in tuition fees
Before 2012, university fees were much lower.

So it began:-
Student loans first became part of the student support package in 1990/91. In that year students could take out a maximum of £420, and then it started to climb on the amount that could be borrowed.
Initially the loans were for living costs, as student tuition fees were paid by the local authorities.
Then over the years changes were made to stop local authorities paying the fees and loans were introduced to pay for the tuition fees, it was in 2006/07 when new students attending institutions in England and Northern Ireland could be charged variable fees of up to £3,000, it was New lending from 2006/07 was subject to a 25-year maximum term after which they are written off.
Then the fees start to rise.

At the end of 2016-17 total publicly owned debt for English students and EU students studying in England was £89.3 billion.

The Government has projected that the outstanding cash value of publicly owned student debt in England will increase to around £100 billion in 2016-17, £500 billion in the mid-2030s and £1,000 billion (£1 trillion) in the late 2040s. The real (2014-15) value is expected to exceed £100 billion around 2018, £200 billion in the late 2020s and stabilize around £300 billion by the middle of this century. These figures assume that fee increase in line with inflation from 2016.

http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01079/SN01079.pdf

The numbers are staggering.

The Vanguard Funds Vanguard S&P 500 ETF is a fund that tracks the USA’s largest Index, the S&P 500.

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investments/vanguard-s-and-p-500-ucits-etf/overview-tab

£14,674m of assets in this fund.

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=2701271&record_search=1&search_phrase=vusa

Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF seeks to track the performance of the index, a widely recognised benchmark of U.S. stock market performance that is comprised of the stocks of large U.S. companies.

The PIC (Pension Insurance Corporation), is a UK based insuring company, specialising in securing the liabilities of Defined Benefit pension schemes.

At year-end 2016, we had £22.6bn of assets and insured 134,900 pension fund members.

https://www.pensioncorporation.com/

What it does, is to take over the pension responsibility from companies.

So, a company is divested of all responsibility for supporting its pension fund. The pension fund is typically wound up and the trustees discharged, the assets pass across to PIC, which becomes responsible for paying pensions and pension fund members from the company become PIC policyholders following transition period

Thus de-risking the company of its pension liabilities and risks, but also then allowing the company to focus on its core business and passing in responsibility of its pension fund and pensions to the PIC.

There has been a lot of talk in the UK Press about the huge pension deficit in the UK Universities Pension Scheme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40763577

The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is one of the largest principal private pension schemes in the UK

http://www.uss.co.uk

USS is the principal pension scheme provided by universities and other higher education and associated institutions in the UK. It has over 390,000 members across over 350 institutions.

Net assets of the scheme £60.5 Billion:-

Securities (equities and bonds) £43.5 Billion
Pooled investment vehicles £13.1 Billion
Derivatives (net) £0.2 Billion
Property £2.1 Billion
Cash balances £2.0 Billion
Defined contribution investments £0.5 Billion
Other investment balances £(0.9) Billion

Net assets of the scheme 60.5 Billion

Top 20 assets held:-

Asset Value £m
UK Treasury 0.75% IL 22/03/2034 £1,955.0 Million 3.2% of the fund
UK Treasury 3.25% 22/01/2044 1,161.1 Million 1.9% of the fund
UK Treasury 4.25% 07/03/2036 1,132.3 Million 1.9% of the fund
US Treasury 0.625% IL 15/02/2043 1,009.5 Million 1.7% of the fund
US Treasury 0.75% IL 15/02/2042 908.0 Million 1.5% of the fund
UK Treasury 0.625% IL 22/03/2040 729.3 Million 1.2% of the fund
UK Treasury 1.5% 22/07/2047 690.8 Million 1.1% of the fund
UK Treasury 4.5% 07/09/2034 636.3 Million 1.1% of the fund
US Treasury 1.375% IL 15/02/2044 591.5 Million 1.0% of the fund
Royal Dutch Shell 505.0 Million 0.8% of the fund
UK Treasury 4.25% 07/09/2039 463.8 Million 0.8% of the fund
UK Treasury 0.125% IL 22/03/2044 377.5 Million 0.6% of the fund
Roche Holding 357.7 Million 0.6% of the fund
US Treasury 3.75% 15/08/2041 327.4 Million 0.5% of the fund
US Treasury BOND 3.125% 15/02/2042 307.2 Million 0.5% of the fund
Flughafen Zuerich AG 292.1 Million 0.5% of the fund
Samsung Electronics 290.5 Million 0.5% of the fund
UK Treasury GILT 3.5% 22/07/2068 281.3 Million 0.5% of the fund
US Treasury 2.125% IL 15/02/2040 276.1 Million 0.5% of the fund
Vodafone Group 274.1 0.5% of the fund
https://www.uss.co.uk/~/media/document-libraries/uss/how-uss-is-run/reports-and-accounts/2017-report-and-accounts-scheme.pdf

The Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust is a very highly regarding London FTSE-250 listed investment trust that is known to be the leader when it comes to Emerging Markets investment.

http://www.temit.co.uk/

Top Ten Holdings are:-

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD 7.33%
BRILLIANCE CHINA AUTOMOTIVE HOLDINGS LTD 7.18%
TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO LTD 4.65%
NASPERS LTD 4.59%
TENCENT HOLDINGS LTD 3.87%
UNILEVER PLC 3.83%
ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD 3.37%
HON HAI PRECISION INDUSTRY CO LTD 3.36%
ASTRA INTERNATIONAL TBK PT 2.96%
COMPANIA DE MINAS BUENAVENTURA SA 2.73%

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=10319&record_search=1&search_phrase=temp

The total investments are:-

Standard Life posted it final sets of figures before it merges with Aberdeen Asset Management

https://www.standardlife.com/dotcom/investor-information/financial-results.page

Salient Facts:

Assets under administration (AUA) increased by 1% to £361.9bn
Fee based revenue up 5% to £836m
Interim dividend per share up 8.2% to 7.00p

Standard Life is the pension provider for BT’s employees who joined after 2001, the BT Retirement Savings Scheme.

BT, the world’s most dynamic media and telecommunications corporation.

www.btretirementsavingscheme.com

On Friday 4th August, Vodafone PLC paid out its 2017 half year dividend.

www.vodafone.com

It was 8.95p a share (€0.1003 a share)

http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/investors/shareholders/ordinary_shareholders/dividends.html

What did this cost Vodafone plc ?

The total number of voting rights in Vodafone is 26,667,760,581

http://tools.eurolandir.com/tools/Pressreleases/GetPressRelease/?ID=3363238&lang=en-GB&companycode=uk-vod&v=

That means:-

26,667,760,581 x 8.95p a share = £2,386,764,572

That is £2.386 Billion

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=10097

5.9% yield.

The JPMorgan Asian Investment Trust is a £320m London Listed Investment trust.

https://am.jpmorgan.com/gb/en/asset-management/gim/per/products/d/jpmorgan-asian-investment-trust-plc-ordinary-shares-gb0001320778

Top Ten Holdings:

Samsung Electronics  7.6%
Tencent  6.9%
AIA  5.8%
Alibaba  5.2%
Ping An Insurance  3.8%
HDFC Bank  3.2%
Kasikornbank  2.6%
CNOOC  2.6%
CK Hutchison  2.6%
Taiwan Semiconductor  2.4%

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?csi=50971

The The ETFS ISE Cyber Security Go ETF is an London Listed “Exchange Traded Fund” that invests in Cyber Security companies.

Its holdings are:-

SPLUNK INC USD 0.001
VERINT SYSTEMS  INC.
F5 NETWORKS INC NPV
AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES INC
SOPHOS GROUP PLC 3P 144A
RADWARE LTD ILS 0.05
SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INT USD 0.0001
JUNIPER NETWORKS INC USD 0.00001
CHECK POINT SOFTWARE TECHN USD 0.01
PALO ALTO NETWORKS INC USD 0.0001
QUALYS INC USD 0.001
MIMECAST LTD
TREND MICRO INC/JAPAN NPV
LEIDOS HLDGS INC USD 0.0001
VERISIGN INC USD 0.001
GEMALTO NV EUR 1.0
PROOFPOINT INC USD 0.0001
FORTINET I USD 0.001
BAE SYSTEM ORD GBP0.025
BARRACUDA NETWORKS INC USD 0.001
BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON HLDG C USD 0.01
CISCO SYS INC USD 0.001
IMPERVA INC USD 0.0001
FFRI INC NPV
MANTECH INTL CORP USD 0.01
RAPID7 INC USD 0.01
VASCO DATA COM USD0.001
VARONIS SYS INC USD 0.001
KEYW HLDG CORP USD 0.001
A10 NETWORKS INC USD 0.00001
CYBERARK SOFTWARE LTD ILS 0.01
GIGAMON INC USD 0.0001
ZIX CORP USD 0.01
CONTRA AVG TECHNOLOGIES NV RR USD NPV
FIREEYE INC USD 0.0001
SYMANTEC CORP USD 0.01
PRECISE BIOMETRICS AB
AHNLAB INC KRW 500.0

£241,378,509 of Assets: That is £241m

http://www.shareshop.hsbc.co.uk/shareshop/security.cgi?username=&ac=&csi=45727174&record_search=1&search_phrase=ISPY

Another month, guess what, take a lucky guess, it is the same old story, HM Government, spends more money than it receives via taxes and duties. Another deficit month, thus to bridge the gap, needs to borrow on the bond market.

In July 2017, the HM Government had to borrow money to meet the difference between tax revenues and public sector expenditure. The term for this is The PSNCR: The Public Sector Net Cash Requirement.

There were “only” 4 auctions of Gilts (UK Government Bonds) by the UK Debt Management Office (http://www.dmo.gov.uk/) to raise cash for HM Treasury:-
25-Jul-2017 1½% Treasury Gilt 2047 £2,500.0000 Million
19-Jul-2017 0¾% Treasury Gilt 2023 £3,162.4980 Million
06-Jul-2017 1¼% Treasury Gilt 2027 £2,867.8060 Million
When you add the cash raised:-

∑(£2,500.0000  Million + £3,162.4980 Million + £2,867.8060  Million) =  £8530.304 Million

£8530.304 Million  = £8.530304 Billion

On another way of looking at it, is in the 31 days in July, HM Government borrowed:-

£275 million each day for the 31 days.

We are fortunate, while the global banking and financial markets still has the confidence in HM Government to buy the Gilts (Lend money to the UK), the budget deficit keeps rising. What is also alarming, is the dates these bond mature 2023, 2027 and 2047. All long term borrowings, we are mortgaging our futures, but at least “We Are In It Together….”

Vanguard of the USA has launched a very low cost plaform for investors to access the global Equity and Bond market.

www.vanguard.com

One of the largest money managers in the world.

The funds:-

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/what-we-offer/all-products