NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR
INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED
STATES, CANADA,
AUSTRALIA OR JAPAN OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO
WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH
JURISDICTION
ASHMORE GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES LIMITED
(“AGOL”)
A Guernsey incorporated and
registered limited liability closed-ended investment company with a
Premium Listing of its US Dollar and Sterling share classes on the
Official List.
Interim Management
Statement to 30 September 2015
Investment Objective
Ashmore Global Opportunities Limited (“AGOL”) is a closed ended
investment company incorporated and registered in Guernsey and
listed on the London Stock Exchange. On 13
March 2013, the Board of AGOL announced that shareholders
had approved the proposals at the EGM held on the same day to amend
the investment objective of AGOL to realise the Company's assets in
an orderly manner and to deliver a regular, quarterly return of
cash to shareholders and to remove the continuation vote. Please
refer to the AGOL website (www.agol.com) for further
information.
This update relates to the period 1 July
2015 to 30 September 2015.
NAV Performance Summary
Share Class |
|
3 Month |
Year to date |
1 Year |
3 Years |
Inception |
GBP |
|
-4.11% |
-5.22% |
-6.84% |
-15.60% |
-8.31% |
USD |
|
-4.04% |
-4.77% |
-6.20% |
-15.63% |
-8.08% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Returns are NAV to NAV, net of fees. Returns are to 30 September 2015. Data is provided for
information purposes only. Shares in AGOL do not necessarily trade
at a price equal to the prevailing NAV per Share, which may be at a
discount or premium. Past performance is not a reliable indicator
of future results. Periods greater than one year are
annualised.
The NAV of AGOL as at 30 September
2015 was $75.5m. The NAV per
share was $4.99 for the USD share
class and £4.90 for the GBP share class.
On 20 July 2015, the Company
announced that the GBP and USD share classes would return
129.49 pence per share and 131.77 US
cents per share respectively for payment on 7 August 2015 by way of compulsory partial
redemption of shares using the 30 June
2015 NAV.
Portfolio Overview
In a challenging period for all markets, and Emerging Markets in
particular, the USD and GBP share classes returned -4.04% and
-4.11% respectively in the third quarter of 2015. The principal
drivers of this performance were Largo Resources, Far East Energy
and Bedfordbury. The negative performance was partially offset by a
positive contribution from Microvast.
Largo Resources is currently focussed on ramping up production
of vanadium at the Maracas Menchen mine in Brazil. Vanadium prices remain under pressure
and are now at historic lows. Despite this, Largo remains in good
stead following a successful capital raising and debt restructure
in May 2015 and is one of the lowest
cost producers in the world. A low vanadium price has seen many
higher cost miners reduce or even close operations, which should
open up a supply gap for Largo. Whilst the Brazilian Maracas
Menchen mine has managed to increase production to 29 tonnes per
day, which represents 110% of the plant’s daily design capacity,
Largo has seen its share price fall over the quarter, in line with
other miners.
Far East Energy’s main activity is the production of coal bed
methane from reserves in its Shouyang field in the Shanxi province in eastern China. This was the largest detractor over the
period. We are considering ways to realise value on this
transaction following the recent Chapter 7 filing in the US.
The strongest contributor over the period was Microvast which
continues to perform well. Following its contract to provide a UK
bus company with batteries for their hybrid electric vehicles,
further orders have been received. At the same time, Microvast
continues to increase its presence in China. Microvast has increased production
capacity and continues to develop new products, and is currently on
course to increase year on year revenues by triple digits.
The core remaining assets at Bedfordbury are the two land banks
following the sale of the Ayala Tower in February 2015. Management are now discussing exit
strategies for the land banks with the most likely option to be a
sale of the assets.
Having exited most of its non-core operations, the primary focus
for management at AEI is to realise its two power generation plants
in Peru and Guatemala. Fenix, in Peru, is fully operational and management are
progressing with the sales process. Jaguar, in Guatemala, has recently been fully
commissioned and management have started to explore sales
opportunities.
GZ Industries, the Nigerian aluminium can manufacturer, has seen
recent trading track in line with expectations. As reported in our
last update, GZI is pursuing the acquisition of Frigoglass,
Nigeria’s largest glass bottles business. At the time of writing,
the deadline for this acquisition has been extended to the end of
November 2015.
As reported in previous communications, the position in MCX has
been exited. We are working to repatriate the remaining cash out of
India.
Pacnet completed its sale to Telstra in April 2015, with 85% of the deal proceeds paid in
cash, with the remainder deferred in 3 tranches. The first tranche
has now been received, and assuming certain criteria are met, the
final two tranches are due to be received in April and November 2016.
Top 10 underlying investments as at
30 September 2015
Investment
Name |
Holding |
Country |
Business
Description |
Website
Link |
AEI |
31.96% |
Cayman Islands |
Owns, operates and
develops interests in power generation assets in Latin
America. |
www.aeienergy.com |
Bedfordbury |
26.95% |
Philippines |
Real estate
development company focussing on underdeveloped sites. |
n/a |
Microvast |
7.10% |
China |
Battery/battery
systems supplier. |
www.microvast.com |
GZ Industries |
2.76% |
Nigeria |
Aluminium cans
manufacturing. |
www.gzican.com |
Far East Energy
Bermuda |
2.43% |
China |
Oil exploration and
production. |
www.fareastenergy.com |
Pacnet |
1.34% |
Singapore |
Asia’s leading
independent telecommunications infrastructure and service
provider. |
www.pacnet.com |
Largo Resources |
1.18% |
Brazil |
Brazilian provider of
mining services. |
www.largoresources.com |
Emerald Plantation
Holdings |
0.52% |
China |
Manages and operates
forest plantations. |
www.emeraldplantationholdings.com |
Arcil |
0.49% |
India |
Provides asset
reconstruction services. |
www.arcil.co.in |
ISM
Communications |
0.37% |
Philippines |
Telecommunications and
banking. |
edge.pse.com.ph/companyInformation/form.do?cmpy_id=36 |
Total: |
75.10% |
|
|
Allocation by Investment Theme
Investment
Theme |
Allocation |
Theme
Description |
Corporate Debt |
3.00% |
Corporate debt
investment theme focusing on the developing corporate debt asset
class in emerging markets. |
Real Estate |
7.60% |
Direct real estate
investments in emerging markets primarily in the residential and
commercial sectors. |
Special
Situations |
84.67% |
Bottom-up, value and
event-driven strategy. Investments are mainly in corporate
restructurings through distressed debt, private and public equity
and equity linked securities. |
G7 Other |
0.23% |
|
Cash &
Equivalent |
4.50% |
|
Total |
100.00% |
|
Allocation is shown by the investment themes of the underlying
Funds or companies which AGOL is invested in. Allocation is
calculated as a percentage of the investment portfolio.
Allocation by Country
Country |
Holding |
Cayman Islands
|
31.96% |
Philippines |
27.32% |
China |
12.68% |
India |
8.71% |
Russia |
5.34% |
Nigeria |
2.76% |
Singapore |
1.35% |
Brazil |
1.18% |
Other Countries |
0.71% |
Cash & Equivalent,
and G7 |
8.00% |
Total |
100.00% |
Allocation by
Industry*
Industry |
Holding |
Real Estate |
33.28% |
Electric
Integration/Generation |
31.96% |
Electrical
Components/Equipment |
7.10% |
Retail |
3.74% |
Miscellaneous
Manufacturing |
2.76% |
Oil & Gas |
2.43% |
Telecommunications |
1.34% |
Mining |
1.18% |
Financial
Services |
0.86% |
Software |
0.64% |
Other Industries |
1.32% |
Cash & Equivalent,
and G7** |
13.50% |
Total |
100.00% |
* Bloomberg industry group classifications
** Includes EM cash holdings which comprise 9.68% of the
portfolio
Allocation by investment*
Investment Name |
Holding |
Quarterly NAV
Performance (net) |
Investment
Description |
Ashmore Global Special
Situations Fund 4 |
31.55% |
-2.55% |
Global emerging
markets special situations investment Fund with a 7 year fixed life
and limited partnership structure. |
AEI |
19.46% |
0.06% |
AEI owns, operates and
develops interests in multiple power generation assets in Latin
America. |
Ashmore Global Special
Situations Fund 5 |
16.84% |
-15.56% |
Global emerging
markets special situations investment Fund with a 7 year fixed life
and limited partnership structure. |
AA Development Capital
India Fund |
8.65% |
0.00% |
Fund focusing on
developmental capital deals on Indian subcontinent. |
Ashmore Asian Recovery
Fund |
6.65% |
-1.48% |
Asian special
situations with investments mainly in corporate restructurings
through distressed debt, private & public equity. Shareholders
voted in January 2013 in favour of proposals to wind-up this Fund
in an orderly manner. |
VTBC Ashmore Real
Estate Partners |
5.37% |
1.01% |
Russian real estate
Fund currently investing in the Moscow metropolitan area. |
Ashmore Global Special
Situations Fund 3 |
3.40% |
-0.03% |
Global emerging
markets special situations investment Fund with a 7 year fixed life
and limited partnership structure. |
Everbright Ashmore
China Real Estate Fund |
2.37% |
0.00% |
Fund focusing on
direct Chinese real estate primarily in the residential and retail
sectors in growing tier 2 and 3 cities in conjunction with a local
partner, Everbright. |
Ashmore Global Special
Situations Fund 2 |
0.96% |
-0.58% |
Global emerging
markets special situations investment Fund with a 5 year fixed life
and limited partnership structure. |
* Holdings of less than 0.5% not shown.
Enquiries:
Ashmore Investment Advisors Limited
Robert Hegt
Tel: +44 (0) 203
077 6147
Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services
(Guernsey) Limited
Andrew Le Page
Tel: +44 (0) 1481
745 405