SCHRODER UK PUBLIC PRIVATE TRUST PLC

TUVOK

I would welcome views please on the above IT.
I have a small,( thankfully) holding in this IT and thus I am carrying a loss on it.
What are the views on holding in the hope of mid/long term recovery or selling and taking the loss?
Thanks for any/all replies

poppy10_2

This is the former Woodford Patient Capital Trust. It's still a basket case, left with the rump of unsellable assets from WPCT, plus a bunch of new trendy stocks that the new spivs have piled into in the hope of performance chasing. It's going nowhere, I'd get out now.

Voyager2002

I also hold this: I bought when the markets took a tumble after th Brexit vote and thought I was being smart (it had been on my radar for a while before then) but am looking at a 70 per cent loss. It is still faintly possible that some of its unconventional assets might turn out to be worth more than they appear, so I continue to hold it for the same kind of reasons that other people buy lottery tickets.

The price fluctuates quite a bit from day to day so maybe there is scope to make a few bob from trading this stock.

Thrugelmir

Given the prices realised for many of the unlisted companies that Woodford invested in. I'd sit tight.  You've little to lose. 

bowlhead99

Thrugelmir said:

Given the prices realised for many of the unlisted companies that Woodford invested in. I'd sit tight.  You've little to lose. 

Yes, I had some of this and added to the position when it had tumbled to 50-55p while still appearing like - discounting all the dross - it could potentially have had 60-70p of value in it, which would simply take 'patience' to recover once they restructured their debt covenants and held the assets over the coming few years. However, that was before Woodford was booted out of his main fund, so had to stop running this one too; getting rid of the people who had put the investment thesis together for most of the privately held deals is probably not the easiest way to realise the potential of them.  So as with Voyager above I am nursing a paper loss (having exited a bit of it to use funds elsewhere) as the punt on a turnaround over a couple of years looks like it didn't work out

As Woodford's bigger fund got shuttered it had to sell its stake in this one, which weighed heavily on WPCT / SUPP's price, and this year the idea of owning a bunch of small listed or private investee companies going into Covid (when such companies would have liked to tap their owners up for capital in uncertain markets, but the fund didn't have any to spare...) is a pretty tough environment that could be the death knell for some of the holdings. Small biotech companies needing capital, or financial businesses like Atom Bank or Ratesetter, are clearly a bad thing to be stuck with owning when a pandemic kicks in and bigger listed rivals that you're trying to 'disrupt' lose two thirds of their market value despite being relatively well resourced. 

There may be 40p+ of NAV in it at the moment (last report date was June showing 45p but will have had a lot of uncertainty) but the price isn't going to improve until they actually get some realisations from their 'patiently-held' investees. There isn't much info available on to what extent Schroders have 'adjusted position sizes' of the various holdings over the last few months as said they were going to, as they look to pay down some of the gearing without engaging in fire sales.

This summer was a bad time to be a forced seller, considering how markets have picked up over the last five months, so hopefully they haven't sold off all the good family jewels - would be nice to think there are some diamonds among the rough somewhere. 

On the positive side, people who didn't sell off at 20p or less in March will have had a chance to exit at close to 50% above that since which they may feel vindicated their decision not to have thrown in the towel when things were looking worst - of course plenty of other companies and funds saw bounces of at least 50% from March lows too.  It's perhaps similar to how the people who didn't sell off at 30p shortly after Woodford got the boot would have felt better for not dumping at that particular low point when they later got offered an exit point in the high 30s if they wanted it; but then not taking it, things took a turn for the worse as the pandemic came and kicked things over. 

I'm still a holder but agree with Thrugelmir above that there's no pressing rush to dive for the exit - as it was only a small part of the portfolio and with the losses, it's even smaller; might as well see what happens. 

A rational person may say why not buy even more at 25p if I think there could be 35-45p of NAV...? Well, the answer is I don't know if there is, but if there is, I already have a bit of exposure to it, and don't need to load up on everything out there in the investment world that might turn out to be a bargain in the fullness of time.  A counterpoint is, if you're not buying more because you don't have full confidence in it, why not sell then..? Well for me the answer is because I don't mind having a bit of exposure to it, to see what develops, but it was never supposed to be a meaningful part of the portfolio - just a long term alternative assets play, for a small portion of my assets.

TUVOK

Many thanks for the replies and especially bowlhead99 for his very full and detailed reply, all four replies have been a great help.
I'm currently carrying an approximate 70% loss on this holding, I too am inclined to run with it and see what happens post covid19 and brexit!!!
It's a relatively small amount I would realize on selling my holding, hopefully it will recover a bit in time, I'll hold on for the next year or so.