Lowland Investment Share Discussion Threads

[masurenguy] 14/9/2008 10:35

After the big market fall in mid July this has retraced by circa 17% over the past 8 weeks. Question is was that the 2008 market bottom or will this level be revisted again over the next few weeks !

[jonwig] 04/8/2008 08:32

Lowland hunts for unloved gems

By James Kenny

Published: July 25 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 25 2008 03:00

Negative investor sentiment towards medium and smaller-sized companies is creating opportunities for Henderson Global Investors' £247m Lowland Investment Company.

The unit trust focuses on income and growth and, according to manager James Henderson, tougher times for the UK economy, are resulting in low valuations for many quality UK small and mid-size companies - a situation that he hopes to exploit.

Mr Henderson said: "At the moment we are buying a number of undervalued companies such as steel highway safety manufacturer Hill & Smith. My view is the company will continue to grow and we are in a position to take advantage of this. Other companies we have recently bought include Senior, an engineering company mainly involved with aerospace that is getting strong demand from the middle and far east."

As well as smaller companies Mr Henderson said he was also increasing his exposure to banks because in his view, share price falls have overly discounted their present problems.

He saw margins for UK banks improving as they increase charges to borrowers. Bad debts will rise, but from low levels, and the banks are prepared for a more difficult climate. In this respect Mr Henderson has bought banks such as HBOS, Barclays and Lloyds, increasing his exposure to between 14-15 per cent overall, up from 7 per cent a year ago.

In spite of the general malaise in the financial sector, insurers - which have been tarred with the same brush as the banks - still represent a good buying opportunity, he added.

He said: "We have been buying general insurers. They have been tarred with worries along with other financials but I do not think this should be the case as they do not have the same subprime exposures and they will be more resilient in this downturn then usual. This time there is less that can go wrong and this isn't reflected in the share price."

Other undervalued areas Mr Henderson has been adding to include housebuilders and insurers.

He has bought housebuilders Bovis, Bellway and Redrow as they are trading on what he sees as attractive discounts and are likely to survive the downturn over the long term.

The manager said he has been reducing his exposure to utilities as their yields were not high enough compared with the yields available elsewhere in the market.

He has also been lowering his holding in Royal Dutch Shell, the fund's largest holding at 5.2 per cent. Again Mr Henderson said he thought the yield on a relative basis was too low.

For the foreseeable future Mr Henderson said he would continue buying smaller and mid-sized companies as he saw the sector continuing to offer quite a few opportunities.

"As an overall view, there's good value emerging, when the yield on the gilt falls below the yield on equities you're usually right to be buying it. I think that is where we are heading at the moment: there is growth coming through so the yields are high enough to be discounting quite a bit. I'm expecting dividend growth and that puts us in good value territory."

[masurenguy] 14/6/2008 14:43

Hi Jon - just put this on my watchlist and started the thread so that I could monitor it.

[jonwig] 14/6/2008 14:33

Hi, M.

Just saw your thread here.

My wife has held these since 1991 (~150p) with divis reinvested.
They seem to be trading at a discount (NAV ~780p) for the first time in many years. I seem to remember a premium of around 10% on occasion.
If the general tone of your header is right, this should be one to watch for the turn.

[masurenguy] 14/6/2008 14:22

Earnings in H1 were 14.7p per share. This compared with 10.1p a year earlier. The increase was as a result of dividend growth from the underlying portfolio holdings, the purchase of high yielding equities and a VAT refund which has added 3.1p to the overall revenue return. The interim dividend was 10.0p, an increase of 11.1% over the same period last year and it is anticipated that the final dividend will also be increased.

[zeppo] 15/5/2008 13:43

JH has been running this for many years and seems to be pretty shrewd.

z

[value viper] 15/5/2008 09:17

starting to have a look at these levels, i see JH upped the gearing recently to do some more buying in banks and property...hmm.

[zeppo] 14/5/2008 16:55

Dividend

The earnings for the period are 14.7 pence per share. This compares with 10.1 pence a year earlier. The increase is the result of dividend growth from the underlying portfolio holdings, the purchase of high yielding equities and the VAT refund which has added 3.1 pence to the revenue return. The interim dividend is 10.0 pence, an increase of 11.1% over the same period last year. It is expected, barring unforeseen circumstances, that the final dividend will also be increased.

z

[zeppo] 14/5/2008 16:01

Interim results to be released later today - or so they tell me.

Anyone else into Investment Trusts?

Any recommendations.

I recommend LWI.

z