
Ordinary Shares

Price (p)	149.00
Published NAV	170.30
Yield	3.89
Discount	-13.91

Prices correct as of close 2010-09-06. Last Published NAV is as at the previous business day. Source: Trustnet

Sigma Shares

Price (p)	66.70
Published NAV	88.10
Yield	3.00
Discount	-24.69

Prices correct as of close 2010-09-06. Last Published NAV is as at the previous business day. Source: Trustnet

For Ordinary Shares

August 2007
The end result for August (NAV up 1.88% versus a benchmark return of 2.23% and a share price rise of 1.9%) belies the extraordinary volatility seen over the month. The NAV rarely moved by less than 1% a day and changed by over 4% on two days in the period. As credit problems took more and more of the centre stage, so it became harder to take any longer term view of the outcome. In July I wrote that a UK rate rise in September was seen as a certainty - now a cut is definitely on the cards. For the record, the UK shares outperformed Continental stocks, thanks, it should be added, to what looked like some large-scale short closing. The UK property investment market was as usual, closed in August and has not properly reopened. Recent events would seem to have clearly hurt the availability of debt for leveraged investors and possibly the outlook for tenant demand in Central London, but they also leave the impression that we should expect the unexpected throughout the rest of 2007. Net debt fell modestly in the month from £43m to £34m, and the spread of the portfolio remained little changed. The major disposal was of a Norwegian hotel group, Norgani, which was the subject of a cash bid. We have taken a decision to bed down the portfolio in what we think are low risk assets on the basis that we have an insufficient view of what the credit crisis will mean for the asset class. Trying to be safer may hurt relative performance in the short term, but we would rather pay to see than gear up into fog.