Smithson Investment Trust
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1470.00 p 18.00 (1.24%) Up 20 Dec, 21:30 GMT
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Fund Factsheet

Price & NAV Data

As at 19th December 2024
NAV 1636.93p
Price 1452.00p
Premium (+) / Discount (-) -11.3%
OCF# to 30.06.2024 0.9%

Historical Prices

Standing Data

Since Inception
Portfolio Manager Simon Barnard
Fund Type Investment Trust
Inception Date 19.10.2018
Sponsor & Broker J.P. Morgan Cazenove
Legal Adviser Travers Smith LLP
Auditor Deloitte LLP
Administrator & Depositary
Northern Trust
Registrar Link Market Services Limited
Co. Secretary
Apex Listed Companies Services
Dealing LSE Main Market
AIC Sector Global Smaller Companies
Investment Manager
Fundsmith LLP

Key Facts

As at 29 Nov 2024
Market Capitalisation £2.0bn
Est. Portfolio Yield§ 1.3%
2023 PTRΔ 27.2%
No. Holdings 33
Median Company Founded 1963
Median Market Cap £8.3bn
Gearing policy Up to 15% short term
No. Shares in Issue 132,263,709
2023 Transaction Costs 0.03%

Fund Performance Analysis

To 29 Nov 2024 %
Annualised Rate of Return +8.8%
Best Month +13.3% (Apr '20)
Worst Month -15.1% (Jan '22)
Average Month +0.8%
% Positive Months 58%

Geographical Split

As at 29 Nov 2024 by Listing %
USA 48.2
UK 15.9
Italy 8.7
Germany 7.0
Switzerland 5.2
New Zealand 4.0
Sweden 3.8
Denmark 3.0
Japan 1.2
Belgium 1.0
Cash◊ 2.0

Sector Split

As at 29 Nov 2024 by NAV - GICS® Categories %
Industrials 43.2
Information Technology 18.3
Health Care 11.9
Consumer Discretionary 10.5
Consumer Staples 8.5
Financials 3.6
Materials 1.9
Cash◊ 2.0

Security Identification Codes

Name Code
SEDOL BGJWTR8
ISIN GB00BGJWTR88
EPIC SSON

Fund Aim

The Smithson Investment Trust plc. (the "Fund") investment policy is to invest in shares issued by small and mid ("SMID") sized listed or traded companies globally with a market capitalisation (at the time of initial investment) of between £500 million and £15 billion. The Fund’s approach is to be a long-term investor in its chosen stocks. It will not adopt short-term trading strategies. Accordingly, it will pursue its investment policy by investing in approximately 25 to 40 companies.

The Investment Manager focuses on investing in those companies it believes can compound in value over many years. It seeks to achieve this by selecting companies that have an established track record of success, such as having already established a dominant market share in their niche product or service or having brands or patents which others would find difficult, if not impossible, to replicate. The Investment Manager believes such SMID sized companies tend to out-perform large companies and that there is also an investment opportunity to take advantage of greater discrepancies between the share price and valuation of SMID sized companies, in part due to lighter research coverage and less information being available on them. SMID sized companies tend to have higher expected returns but also higher expected risk, defined as price volatility (a measure of how much its price moves over time), when compared to larger companies. However, adding a small and mid-cap portfolio to a large-cap portfolio can raise expected returns without increasing risk, due to the different risk and return characteristics that SMID sized companies provide.

The Investment Manager seeks to invest in SMID sized companies that exhibit strong profitability that is sustainable over time and generate substantial cash flow that can be reinvested back into the business. Its strategy is not to overpay when buying the shares of such companies and then do as little dealing as possible in order to minimise the expenses of the Fund, allowing the investee companies' returns to compound for shareholders with minimum interference.

The Investment Manager looks to avoid companies that are heavily leveraged or forced to rely upon debt in order to provide an adequate return, as well as sectors and industries that innovate very quickly and are rapidly changing. It instead focuses on companies that have exhibited an ability to continue outperforming competitors and will look for companies that rely heavily on intangible assets in industries such as information technology, health care and consumer goods. The Fund's investments will be long-term and the Investment Manager will not be forced to act when market prices are unattractive.

Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Performance Overview, % Return

  Nov 2024 2024 to
29.11.24		 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 Inception* to
29.11.24		 Annualised to
29.11.24
Smithson NAV1 +4.7 +5.1 +13.3 -28.1 +18.9 +31.4 +33.2 +67.9 +8.8
Smithson Share Price +6.7 +5.7 +8.2 -35.2 +18.1 +31.7 +29.8 +49.6 +6.8
Equities2 +7.4 +16.7 +9.1 -8.7 +17.8 +12.2 +21.9 +71.7 +9.2
UK Bonds3 +1.7 -0.7 +5.6 -15.0 -4.5 +4.6 +3.8 -5.5 -0.9
Cash4 +0.4 +4.7 +4.6 +1.4 +0.1 +0.3 +0.8 +12.5 +1.9

1Source: Bloomberg, starting NAV 1000, net of fees.  2MSCI World SMID Index, £ Net, source: www.msci.com.
3Bloomberg Series-E UK Govt 5 - 10 yr Bond Index, source: Bloomberg.  4£ Interest Rate, source: Bloomberg.  *From 19.10.18

Portfolio Comment for November 2024

We sold out of Fortinet after the share price had increased by 4x since we acquired the position and the company became too large for the strategy. We began acquiring a holding in Medpace, a US based contract research company with exposure to the high growth biotechnology sector. The top 5 contributors in the month were Qualys, Sabre, Oddity, Graco and Choice Hotels International. The top 5 detractors were Ambu, Moncler, Rational, Fevertree Drinks and Croda.

Top 10 holdings

  • Diploma
  • Rational
  • Verisk Analytics
  • Verisign
  • Fisher & Paykel
  • Choice Hotels International
  • Geberit
  • Graco
  • Clorox
  • Moncler

Smithson

  •  Small &
  •  Mid Cap
  •  Investments
  •  That
  •  Have
  •  Superior
  •  Operating
  •  Numbers

Sector: Global Smaller Companies is the Association of Investment Companies defined sector and comprises a peer group of just 5 investment trusts which invest at least 80% of their assets in smaller company securities. Namely, Edinburgh Worldwide, Herald Investment Trust, North Atlantic Smaller Companies, The Global Smaller Companies Trust and Smithson. 

# The OCF (Ongoing Charges Figure) is the total expenses paid by the fund (excluding bank overdraft interest), annualised, against its average net asset value. The OCF will fluctuate as the average net assets and costs change. The OCF is updated following the publication of accounts for the periods ending 30th June and 31st December.

◊ Cash in the Sector and Geographic split represents current assets, of which cash is typically the largest part, less any current liabilities.

§ Estimated Portfolio Yield is based on an estimate of the forecast dividends receivable from the underlying portfolio companies over the next twelve months. Where the OCF exceeds the amount of dividends received or there are no distributable reserves then no dividends will be distributable to shareholders of Smithson Investment Trust.

Δ The PTR (Portfolio Turnover Rate) is a measure of the fund's trading activity, and has been calculated by taking the total share purchases and sales less total creations and liquidations divided by the average net asset value of the fund.

N.B. When a position is being built for the fund the company name is not disclosed in factsheet data.

Monthly NAV Performance Table

  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total
2018 - - - - - - - - - - -0.7 -5.2 -5.8
2019 +7.5 +5.0 +5.5 +4.4 -3.6 +6.5 +2.1 -0.2 -1.0 -3.2 +7.5 -0.5 +33.2
2020 +0.2 -4.7 -5.4 +13.3 +11.7 +0.8 +0.1 +0.7 +2.3 -2.7 +7.2 +5.7 +31.4
2021 -3.3 -3.3 +4.3 +7.5 -3.9 +5.1 +4.4 +3.9 -3.1 +3.3 +0.2 +3.3 +18.9
2022 -15.1 -4.3 +2.2 -5.7 -6.0 -7.2 +10.3 -2.9 -7.2 +3.9 +4.8 -2.6 -28.1
2023 +8.0 -1.9 +2.7 +2.7 -0.8 +0.7 +0.8 -3.3 -4.3 -6.3 +6.9 +8.4 +13.3
2024 -1.8 +1.8 +1.1 -5.3 +1.4 +1.2 +3.7 +0.4 -0.5 -1.4 +4.7   +5.1

MSCI World SMID Index is the exclusive property of MSCI Inc. MSCI makes no express or implied warranties or representations and shall have no liability whatsoever with respect to any MSCI data contained herein. The MSCI data may not be further redistributed or used as a basis for other indices or any securities or final products. This report is not approved, reviewed or produced by MSCI. The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) was developed by and is the exclusive property of MSCI and Standard & Poor’s and “GICS®” is a service mark of MSCI and Standard & Poor’s.

Fundsmith LLP ("Fundsmith") is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and only acts for the funds to whom it provides regulated investment management and transaction arrangement services. Fundsmith does not act for or advise potential investors in connection with acquiring shares in Smithson Investment Trust plc and will not be responsible to potential investors for providing them with protections afforded to clients of Fundsmith. Prospective investors are strongly advised to take their own legal, investment and tax advice from independent suitably qualified advisers. The value of investments may go up as well as down. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Fund Factsheet Archive

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