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Odyssean Investment Trust PLC on Wednesday said its net asset value decreased in its latest financial year although total net assets increased by 15%, but it said this performance was ‘credible’ considering the volatile market backdrop. Odyssean is a London-based investment trust focused on smaller companies, primarily in the services, industrials, healthcare, and technology, media & telecom sectors. The company said NAV at March 31 was 160.4p per share, down from 164.0p per share at the same time a year prior. NAV total return per share was negative 2.2% in the recent financial year, worsened from positive 17.7% in financial 2022. Shares in Odyssean were down 1.9% at 159.00 pence in London on Wednesday. Total net assets increased by 15% to £181.2 million at March 31 from £157.8 million a year before. Odyssean declared no dividend for the recent financial year, unchanged from the previous year. It explained it prefers to focus on generating returns through capital growth of shares rather than dividend income. During the 2023 financial year Odyssean swung to a pretax loss of £4.1 million from a profit of £22.2 million. This was primarily due to its swing to a £4.3 million net loss on investments at fair value, compared with a £24.1 million gain the year before. Chair Jane Tufnell said Odyssean had experienced ‘a period of considerable market turmoil’ with soaring interest rates impacting asset prices and company earnings, and that UK open-ended equity funds were ‘extremely out of favour’ and ‘experiencing large redemptions’. ‘Our management team are navigating these markets well, and I am confident we will make money out of them but some short-term volatility has to be endured,’ she added. Odyssean said it expects returns in the long-term future, with a ‘more supportive’ backdrop forecast over the next five years. ‘Investing in these market conditions can be challenging,’ Tufnell commented. ‘However what I observe as [chair] of this highly concentrated, specialist portfolio, is that the hands-on active management of our positions creates opportunities in bad days as well as good days. ‘I have taken great comfort in watching your management team closely and although there are bumps in the road, we have a team who know their companies well and can move quickly to take advantage of situations.’ Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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