Worsley Investors Ltd - Guernsey-registered closed-ended, self-managed investment firm - Underperforms its benchmark in its annual report and expects British companies’ trading to be worse than market expectations due to inflation.

For the financial year that ended March 31, net asset value total return turns to negative 4.0% versus positive 8.8% a year ago. Share price total return is negative 1.1%, underperforming its benchmark FTSE All Share Index, which reports a total positive return of 13.0%.

Pretax loss stands at £546,000 versus a profit of £1.9 million in the nine months to March 31, 2021. Posts £770,000 unrealised valuation loss on investment property, versus none a year prior. General and administrative expenses widen to £530,000 from £440,000. Gross property income grows to £742,000 from £576,000.

‘We continue to believe that the British stock market is yet fully to discount the impact of extreme inflation on UK company earnings and the permanent changes in the structure of certain industries in reaction to the vulnerabilities exposed by the pandemic, and more recently the Ukrainian conflict. In consequence, we expect the upcoming trading outlooks to be announced by many British companies to be materially worse than market expectations. Whilst the share prices of many have already tumbled, this is likely to result in further falls,’ Worsley says.

Current stock price: 28.00 pence, unchanged

12-month change: down 7.6%

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