Full year results for the year ended 31 March 2024
Rockwood Strategic plc (AIM: RKW) is pleased to announce its audited results for the year ended 31 March 2024.
Highlights
– NAV Total Return performance in the twelve months to 31 March 2024 of 5.1% to 206.04p per share, which compares to a decline in the FTSE AIM All-Share of 8.6% and a rise in the FTSE Small Cap (ex-ITs) of 7.1%.
– Total Shareholder Return in the twelve months to 31 March 2024 was 15.4%.
– NAV Total Return performance in the three years to 31 March 2024 of 57.0%, which compares to the FTSE Small Cap (ex-ITs) of -6.8% and the FTSE AIM All-Share of -38.5%. The Total Shareholder Return in this period was 70.1%.
– Price of shares moved from a discount to NAV of 7.1% during the period to a premium of 1.9%.
– Significant new investor demand resulted in the issuance of 5,778,630 new shares, increasing the share count by 22.7% and, alongside performance, growing NAV to £64.3m. NAV has now grown 58% in the last two years, building scale.
– Five new portfolio investments purchased during the period, as funds received from four takeovers and stock issuance were re-deployed.
– Conducted 10 for 1 stock split during the period.
– A 0.6p dividend will be proposed to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting on 31 July 2024.
Post Period End
– NAV Total Return performance since period end to 14 June 2024 of 19.1% to 245.49p per share.
– Significant positive company developments and share price performance in a range of investments such as RM, Filtronic and Funding Circle.
– Further issuance of 1,005,796 new shares, increasing NAV to £79m as at 14 June 2024.
– Fund is the No.1 Small Companies Investment Trust year-to-14 June for NAV Total Return and over 1, 3 and 5 years, as per the Association of Investment Companies.
Noel Lamb, Chairman of Rockwood Strategic plc, commented:
“The portfolio delivered a positive return in difficult markets, and the Board are delighted to have fully utilised our capacity to issue up to 20% of new shares as granted under our 2023 AGM authority, in a period when there have been consistent UK sector fund outflows. We really are building scale at Rockwood to the benefit of all shareholders. Clearly new investors share our confidence that the future for this specialist strategy is positive, the outlook for the portfolio is bright and that the opportunity to meet our target returns in this generally over-looked part of the UK stock market is achievable.”
Richard Staveley, Fund Manager, Harwood Capital LLP said:
“Having navigated a challenging UK small companies’ market, we are excited about the underlying business turnaround momentum across the portfolio. We expect further profit recovery and valuation re-rating in our investments and a number of positive potential catalysts are yet to emerge. We are thankful for the growing investor support for Rockwood’s differentiated strategy and are demonstrating our belief that we can deploy capital into this inefficient, overlooked and undervalued part of the UK market to deliver for shareholders. We are ‘active’ investors, unburdened by benchmark constraints and ‘active’ with our investments to unlock, create or realise value for all stakeholders.”
The full version of the RKW 2024 Annual Report and Notice of AGM has been published and will shortly be available on the Company’s website at www.rockwoodstrategic.co.uk.