STANDARD LIFE UK SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST PLC (SLS)

STANDARD LIFE UK SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST PLC (SLS)

Blog posts

Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Proposes Name Change – Roger Lawson says Vote Against!

This article represents the views of its author, not necessarily those of ShareSoc. The Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS) is proposing to change its name. The managers are currently Aberdeen Standard Fund Managers Limited but the name “Standard Life” has been sold to Phoenix Group so a change of name is not unreasonable. Of course this is the kind of problem that arises when a trust is named after the fund manager. It also causes problems if the board of directors ...

Standard Life UK Smaller Companies AGM, WPP and Tesla

For those folks who invest in smaller companies, it’s always educational to attend the Annual General Meeting of Standard Life UK Smaller Companies (SLS) which I did today. This investment trust has been managed by Harry Nimmo and his team for many years and he has consistently beaten the company’s benchmark (currently Numis Smaller Companies Plus AIM index). Harry’s presentation highlighted that smaller companies were a “great place to be until the last 4 weeks”. He said that we often see sharp ...

The Market, Dunedin and Standard Life Smaller Companies Merger, and Aston Martin IPO

Is it not depressing when you go away for a week’s holiday and your portfolio falls every day in that time? I do monitor any exceptional movements while on vacation but try to avoid trading. It just seemed to be a general downward trend and reviewing the movement over that week my portfolio is down 1.73% while the FTSE All-Share is down 1.72%. So that is what I had already surmised. Those stocks that seemed to have become overblown did fall and ...

Standard Life UK Smaller Companies and FRC Meetings

Yesterday I attended two meetings in the City of London. Here are brief reports on each. Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust Plc (SLS) held a meeting for investors to “meet the manager” in London as their AGM was in Edinburgh this year – only about 10 people attended the latter so there were more in London. I have held this trust for some years and the manager, Harry Nimmo, who has been with the company for 33 years has been a ...

Learning From The Experts

One way to learn about how to invest successfully is to follow the style and rules of the experts. Yesterday (27/10/2016) I attended the AGM of Standard Life UK...

A Tale of Two Trusts – SLS and BRWM

Yesterday Blackrock World Mining (BRWM) announced they were writing off their investment in London Mining. This was one of their largest holdings and cut the trust's net asset value by almost 8%. The share price promptly fell by 8% on the day and fell further today. Who are London Mining you may ask? This is a small iron ore mining company based in Sierra Leone which has been badly affected by the slump in iron ore prices and the Ebola crisis ...

How to pick small cap stocks – just follow Harry Nimmo

Yesterday was the Annual General Meeting of Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust and those who like investing in small cap stocks would have found it useful to go along and learn from the master – fund manager Harry Nimmo. Gordon Humphries said that the company is basically “Harry’s 50 best ideas”, i.e. it’s a conviction portfolio but with no individual holdings allowed to go above 5%. It has a fairly low yield at 1.4% currently but that has grown at a ...

AGM Reports

Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS) AGM Report 2016

I attended the AGM of Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS) today in the Gherkin building in the City of London. I was also going to attend the City of London Investment Trust (CTY) later in the day but as they were offering an on-line live video of that decided to use that option instead - that was a mistake as it did not appear. Top marks for promoting that, but a black mark for it not being provided! There were ...

Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS) AGM Report 2014

Today (the 9th October) I attended the Annual General Meeting of Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (EPIC SLS which I will refer to from now on). The meeting was held in the Gherkin building in the City of London at 12.30 pm which was certainly convenient, although the security in this building is somewhat tight. There were about 15 ordinary shareholders there which was perhaps a few less than last year. I chatted to David Woods, the Chairman, before the formal ...

Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS) AGM Report 2013 – Harry’s 50 best ideas

Today I attended the Annual General Meeting of Standard Life UK Smaller Companies (SLS) an investment trust where the fund is managed by Harry Nimmo. It was on the 34th Floor of the “Gherkin” building in the City of London – almost as good as view as from the top of the Shard which I visited recently, and free in this case. They should have advertised the view because only about 20 shareholders were present which was disappointing as this was ...