Graphite Enterprise Trust

moneylover

Graphite Enterprise Trust was one of the main 'buys' in this weeks Investors Chronicle
I know that there have been posts in the past about Graphite and I wondered how investors feel about it at the moment as an investment - its currently on a 24% discount but grew 30% last year.

Glen_Clark

I am holding Graphite. I bought it as a punt in Feb 09 when nobody trusted its valuation - the problem is its holdings are in things that are hard to value, and only valued perhaps once a year. Unlike the big Investment Trusts whose holdings are in shares so the Net Asset Value can be updated daily.


(Graphite is the best performing share I am still holding and has risen by 171% plus dividends since I bought it in Feb 09. I also made about 200% profit when I flipped in and out of Graphite a few years earlier. But unfortunately its less than 1% of the total, most of which is cash because I was put off shares after being scammed by the banks helping themselves to 99.5% of the equity when Marconi crashed. So now I am being scammed by the Bankers money printing instead )

atush

I have been investing into this one monthly ofr over a decade. Has out performed the main F&C trust.

Glen_Clark

atush wrote: »

Has out performed the main F&C trust.

Thats a bit more steady as its easier to value the Net Assets.(I hold that one too)
My theory is that Graphite being harder to value makes the share price more volatile because its more affected by the main stock market drivers of Greed and Fear.
(I think Greed is overtaking Fear at the moment)

Ark_Welder

moneylover wrote: »

Graphite Enterprise Trust was one of the main 'buys' in this weeks Investors Chronicle
I know that there have been posts in the past about Graphite and I wondered how investors feel about it at the moment as an investment - its currently on a 24% discount but grew 30% last year.

The sector average grew around 30% last year, GPE share price grew around 20%, NAV 10%. There has been a general narrowing of discounts in the sector since the credit crunch, as the realisation has spread that all of them weren't about to do a 'Candover'.

The fact that the sector is still at a discount - to varying degrees - is a sign that it is still out of favour: that might indicate that it is still a time to buy. Especially for a long-term holding, i.e. 10+ years.

There may also be an opportunity for a short-term punt [And at this point, I'll state that I hold Pantheon and HgCapital - both with a 10+year view, however]. My reasoning is that later this year, the 5th anniversary of the start of the said Crunch occurs. PE share prices fell more than most other sectors, so 5-year performance tables - based on share price - will be comparing from their lowest prices, making their performance look outstanding. I expect that 'chasers' will be impressed by this performance, and that discounts will narrow further. For this reason, if no other, I suggest that those interested in past performance data rely on NAV total returns rather than share-price TR: the former tells how the management has performed, whereas the latter is - an in the case of PE, especially - a reflection of sentiment towards the sector.

The caveat to the above, being of-course, that there is still plenty of opportunity for markets to be slapped back down again before the end of the year.

jimjames

moneylover wrote: »

Graphite Enterprise Trust was one of the main 'buys' in this weeks Investors Chronicle
I know that there have been posts in the past about Graphite and I wondered how investors feel about it at the moment as an investment - its currently on a 24% discount but grew 30% last year.

GET is one of my longest held shares via the F&C share plan and is also held for my childrens savings. Funny how the buy recommendation comes after a long period of growth - I would have preferred a buy to be suggested before the growth when the shares were still £3 each rather then £4.60 now.

I think the discount will normalise over time and that it is a good area of the market to have some exposure to.

moneylover

Thank you all very much, this is all useful and I think I will make a smallish investment
To be fair to IC they wrote positive articles about this IT in 2012and 2011 as well although not the out and out tip that the article was this time around.
I d o have one investor friend who, partially at least, relies on
Ichimoku and tells me its a bearish trend on Graphite at the moment...I have never investigated Ichimoku

Totton

Private Equity trusts by their nature hold quite different stock than their counterparts, hence i feel it is important to try and understand that even within their sector these can be different beasts. I like HgCapital, Mithras and Electra although as mentioned earlier the discounts have narrowed quite a bit. I'm not holding any at the moment as I missed the boat on Electra when I intended to invest early in the year but dithered for too long :-)

Glen_Clark

Price earnings ratio currently 214 ?

http://www.google.co.uk/finance?q=LON%3AGPE

or

http://uk.moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/compare.asp?Page=PriceRatios&symbol=GB%3aGPE