BARING EMERGING EUROPE PLC
Interim Management Statement
Review of the period from 1 April 2008 to 30 June 2008
This Interim Management Statement relates to the period from 1 April 2008 to 30
June 2008 and contains information that covers that period, unless otherwise
stated.
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
The investment objective of the Company is to achieve long-term capital growth,
principally through investment in Emerging European securities.
MATERIAL EVENTS OR TRANSACTIONS DURING THE PERIOD
The directors confirm the following material events and transactions which have
occurred since the Company's half year end on 31 March 2008.
Portfolio:
We made relatively few changes to asset allocation within the region during the
period. We reduced exposure to Hungary and Turkey. Against that, we slightly
increased exposure to Poland, Russia and the Ukraine and added to the cash
weighting during the period.
The major changes to sector weights took place amongst energy, natural
resources and financials. After a very strong share price performance, we
reduced exposure to the natural resource sector, mainly through ferro-chrome,
steel, gold and nickel and increased exposure to the energy sector. Finally,
financials and real estate have been increased marginally as the sharp sell-off
we have seen in the market is in our opinion starting to create some very
attractively valued investment opportunities in these areas.
Amongst the best performing stocks held during the period were the Czech energy
company CEZ, Steppe Cement, the Russian steel and mining group Evraz, Uralkaliy
and International Personal Finance. The worst performing stocks were Bank
Pekao, PBG, Black Earth Farming, Garanti Bank and the Russian telecoms provider
Vimpelcom.
Discount:
During the period from 1 April 2008 to 30 June 2008 the average share price
discount to net asset value was 8.2%.
Share Capital:
During the period from 1 April 2008 to 30 June 2008 the Company bought back
674,927 ordinary shares at a cost of £6.6 million. At 30 June 2008 the
Company's issued share capital consisted of 39,997,241 ordinary shares
(excluding the 4,318,207 ordinary shares held in treasury). During the period
from 1 July 2008 to 23 July 2008 a further 191,000 shares have been repurchased
for cancellation. On 16 July 2008 the Company announced that it had cancelled
1,000,000 of the shares held in treasury at 30 June 2008.
The directors are not aware of any other significant events or transactions up
to the date of this report which would have a material impact on the financial
position of the Company.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Board was pleased to have been able to announce the appointment of Mr
Jonathan Woollett as a non-executive director of the Company on 23 July 2008.
He was previously a director at the European Bank of Reconstruction and
Development in London and has considerable experience in the region.
COMPANY STATISTICS
30 June 2008 23 July 2008
Gross Assets £413.8 million £379.5 million
Net Asset Value Per Ordinary Share 1,034.6p 953.3p
Share Price 930.0p 885.0p
Discount to Net Asset Value 10.1% 7.2%
CUMULATIVE PERFORMANCE TO 30 June 2008 (Total Return in percentage terms)
Performance Over 3m 1 Year 3 Years
Share Price* 8.4 16.8 144.0
Net Asset Value* 9.8 19.5 143.2
Benchmark+ 4.7 9.7 129.2
* Source - Fundamental Data Limited
+ Source - Baring Asset Management
PORTFOLIO INFORMATION AT 30 June 2008
% of Total Assets
Ten largest holdings:
Gazprom 10.8
Lukoil Holdings 9.4
Sberbank 6.0
CEZ 5.3
Evraz Group 4.5
Mobile Telesystems 4.4
Vimpelcom 3.2
Powszechna Kasa 3.0
Rosneft 2.9
Eurasian Natural Res. 2.8
Geographical breakdown:
Russia 63.0
Poland 10.6
Czech Rep 7.9
Turkey 6.8
Kazakhstan 3.5
Ukraine 1.4
Romania 0.7
Other 4.9
Cash and Equivalents 1.2
100.0
25 July 2008
END
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