TIDMNST 
 
RNS Number : 0035Z 
New Star Financial Opp Fd Ltd 
14 September 2009 
 

NEW STAR FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND LIMITED 
 
 
HENDERSON GLOBAL INVESTORS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NEW STAR FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND LIMITED 
 
 
Interim Management Statement 
Review of the period from 1 June 2009 to 31 August 2009 
 
 
This Interim Management Statement has been prepared solely to provide additional 
information to Shareholders as a body to meet the relevant requirements of the 
UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules, and should not be 
relied upon by any other party or for any other purpose. 
 
 
This Interim Management Statement may contain forward-looking statements that: 
 
 
  *  have been made by the Directors in good faith based on the information available 
  to them up to the time of their approval of this report; and 
  *  should be treated with caution due to the inherent uncertainties, including both 
  economic and business risk factors, underlying such forward-looking statements. 
 
 
 
This Interim Management Statement relates to the quarter from 1 June 2009 to 
31 August 2009 and contains information that covers that period, unless 
otherwise stated. 
 
 
Material events and transactions 
 
 
The half yearly report for the six months ended 31 May 2009 was published on 29 
July 2009. 
 
 
An Extraordinary General Meeting was held on 14 September 2009 and approved the 
following proposals: 
 
 
?    a continuation of the Company's exposure to financial companies under the 
management of Guy de Blonay at Henderson Global Investors Limited, but with a 
revised and broader investment policy encompassing investment opportunities on a 
global basis with the aim of maximising the total return to Shareholders without 
the constraint of a very high yield target; 
 
 
?a change of the benchmark for measuring the Company's investment performance to 
the MSCI World Financials Index (and making a consequential amendment to the 
Investment Management Agreement) to reflect the proposed broader investment 
policy; 
 
 
?    as part of the revised investment policy, the objective of reducing and 
then, as policy, maintaining the level of gearing no higher than 30 per cent. as 
a proportion of net assets; 
 
 
?    an initial continuation, using the Company's revenue reserves, and then 
change of the Company's dividend policy with the aim of a sustainable level of 
total dividend, which represents an attractive proposition in current market 
conditions; 
 
 
?    an amendment to the Company's accounting policy to reflect the proposed 
revised investment policy and dividend policy; 
 
 
?to give Shareholders the opportunity to vote on the continuation of the Company 
as an investment company at the Annual General Meeting to be held in 2011 
(subject to certain caveats, as noted below). If Shareholders vote against the 
continuation of the Company at that meeting then proposals will be put to 
Shareholders within three months to wind up or otherwise reconstruct the 
Company. Caveat - In the event that the Company successfully undertakes a 
significant fund-raising prior to the date of the Annual General Meeting in 
2011, the Directors, in their absolute discretion, may decide that it would no 
longer be appropriate to have a continuation vote in 2011. In these 
circumstances, a resolution for the Company to continue would still be proposed 
in 2014; and 
 
 
?    a change of the Company's name to "Henderson Financial Opportunities 
Limited". 
 
 
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. 
 
 
Portfolio Review: 
Global equity markets continued to rally over the summer months as risk appetite 
increased, driven by signs of a quicker than expected recovery in the global 
economy. Few, had anticipated that for example Germany, France and Japan would 
be at least technically out of recession in the second quarter or that US job 
losses would show signs of levelling off. Financials was a top performing sector 
as the second quarter reporting season kicked off a wave of analyst upgrades as 
companies reported better than expected numbers. In particular, banks' wholesale 
revenues surprised positively while credit costs did not generally show the 
significant deterioration which had been expected. The improved investor 
sentiment saw a few banks opportunistically tapping the market for capital to 
shore up their balance sheets or repay government support capital. The banks 
outperformed all other sub-sectors within the financials sector over the period. 
 
 
The financials sector has seen a swift re-rating from the March 2009 lows as 
investors shifted their focus from crisis valuations or nationalisations to 
normalised valuations in light of the stabilising macroeconomic environment. As 
many share prices are now near pre-Lehman levels and the influence of the global 
macro-economic landscape has been factored in, the focus now will be to invest 
in those companies which have internal specific drivers for earnings recovery. 
The portfolio, therefore, is looking to invest in high quality names which offer 
compelling value driven by strong balance sheets, healthy cash flow and stable 
dividends or have a high probability of returning to consistent dividend 
payments. 
 
 
On geographical allocation, the portfolio has increased its weighting to areas 
outside of the UK and Europe, in particular, into the US and Asia.  Asia 
provides an interesting opportunity for stock picking in this current 
environment. The favourable macro backdrop as well as large government fiscal 
stimulus packages provides stability to the investment rationale. In particular, 
in Hong Kong, China and Singapore, the banking system did not suffer from the 
financial crisis to the extent of their Western peers as they were not exposed 
to the structured products, are better capitalised and are not facing an 
over-indebted consumer. Chinese banks continue to see positive loan growth and 
are gradually improving their business mix to higher margin products. 
 
 
The asset split within the portfolio has seen the fixed income portion reduced 
to around 25% over the past three months. Bonds have been disposed of after 
spreads narrowed and the proceeds were reinvested into equities, which offered 
the potential for capital growth. Whilst we understand the importance of the 
fixed income portfolio to generate a revenue stream, the portfolio looks well 
placed to cover the expected full year 3p per share dividend. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gearing: 
The Company has a prime broker facility with Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) 
Limited. Following the passing of the resolutions at the Extraordinary General 
Meeting held on 14 September 2009 the Company has an objective of reducing and 
then, as policy, maintaining the level of gearing no higher than 30 per cent. as 
a proportion of net assets. 
 
 
Dividends: 
The Directors declared a third interim dividend on 14 September 2009 of 0.75p 
per share which will be paid on 30 October 2009. 
 
 
Discount: 
The discount widened from 14.70% as at 31 May 2009 to 17.74% as at 31 August 
2009 
 
 
PERFORMANCE AND FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS 
 
 
+-------------------------------------------+----------+--------+---------+---------+ 
|            Performance at 31 August 2009  | 3 months | 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------+--------+---------+---------+ 
|                               Share Price |    23.6% | -35.2% |  -46.7% |   -2.9% | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------+--------+---------+---------+ 
|        Net Asset Value per ordinary share |    28.2% | -24.1% |  -42.6% |   -7.4% | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------+--------+---------+---------+ 
|               MSCI World Financials Index |    19.2% | -13.8% |  -34.3% |  -15.0% | 
+-------------------------------------------+----------+--------+---------+---------+ 
Sources: AIC Services Limited and Datastream 
 
 
 
 
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
|                       Financial Position  |  At 31 August 2009 |    At 31 May 2009  | 
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
|                      Net assets (GBP'000) |             15,759 |             12,298 | 
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
|        Net asset value per ordinary share |             41.33p |             32.25p | 
|        (including current period revenue) |                    |                    | 
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
|   Ordinary share price (mid-market price) |             34.00p |             27.50p | 
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
|                                  Discount |             17.74% |             14.70% | 
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
|                               Net Gearing |                78% |                69% | 
+-------------------------------------------+--------------------+--------------------+ 
 
 
 
 
THE PORTFOLIO 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|     Top 10 Investments  |      |  % of net assets |  % of net assets | 
|                         |      |     at 31 August |   at 31 May 2009 | 
|                         |      |             2009 |                  | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|         Bank of America |      |             10.5 |              0.0 | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|        Banque Cantonale |      |              6.3 |              4.7 | 
|                Vaudoise |      |                  |                  | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
| Personal Group Holdings |      |              5.7 |              6.7 | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|                 DnB NOR |      |              5.6 |              6.3 | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|                Barclays |      |              5.3 |              0.4 | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|         JP Morgan Chase |      |              4.8 |              0.0 | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|                 Natixis |      |              4.4 |              0.0 | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|                     UBS |      |              3.9 |              0.0 | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|              Alpha Bank |      |              3.9 |              1.2 | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
|          Investec 7.75% |      |              3.7 |              3.7 | 
+-------------------------+------+------------------+------------------+ 
 
 
 
 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Geographic Breakdown           |   % of portfolio | % of portfolio | 
|                                |     at 31 August | at 31 May 2009 | 
|                                |             2009 |                | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| United Kingdom                 |             41.8 |           54.1 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| United States                  |             14.8 |            0.0 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Switzerland                    |              9.5 |            8.1 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| France                         |              7.5 |            7.1 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Norway                         |              6.0 |            6.5 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Germany                        |              3.3 |            5.3 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Greece                         |              3.2 |            1.5 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Hong Kong                      |              2.8 |            0.0 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Italy                          |              2.2 |            2.6 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Ireland                        |              1.6 |            0.0 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Other                          |              7.3 |           14.8 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
 
 
 
 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Sector Breakdown               |   % of portfolio | % of portfolio | 
|                                |            at 31 | at 31 May 2009 | 
|                                |      August 2009 |                | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
|                          Banks |             40.8 |           25.9 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
|             Non-Life Insurance |             13.2 |           14.9 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
|                 Life Insurance |              6.2 |            6.5 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
|           Investment Companies |              1.6 |            4.9 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
|              General Financial |             11.8 |            8.5 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
|                    Real Estate |              1.4 |            5.9 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
| Fixed Income                   |             25.0 |           33.4 | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
|                                |                  |                | 
+--------------------------------+------------------+----------------+ 
 
 
Investment Objective 
The investment objective of the Company is to maximise total return from a 
global portfolio of investments in financial companies whilst recognising the 
importance of dividend income to shareholders. 
 
 
The Company will seek to achieve its investment objective by investing 
predominantly in equity, debt or other securities of listed financial companies. 
 
 
The Manager is Henderson Global Investors Limited. Further information on the 
Company, including an up to date net asset value and share price information, 
can be found at www.henderson.com/financialopportunities. 
 
 
 
For further information, please contact: 
 
 
Guy de Blonay 
Portfolio Manager 
Henderson Global Investors Limited 
Telephone: 020 7818 3528 
 
 
James de Sausmarez 
Head of Investment Trusts 
Henderson Global Investors Limited 
Telephone: 020 7818 3349 
 
 
Sarah Gibbons-Cook 
Investor Relations and PR Manager 
Henderson Global Investors Limited 
Telephone: 020 7818 3198 
 
 
David Benda 
Director Corporate Broking 
Numis Securities Limited 
Telephone 020 7260 1275 
 
 
- ENDS - 
 
 
 
 
 
This information is provided by RNS 
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange 
   END 
 
 IMSGGGMLMDZGLZM 
 

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