Shares of Montanaro European Smaller (LON:MTE - Get Free Report) passed above its 50-day moving average during trading on Friday The stock has a 50-day moving average of GBX 151.08 ($2.01) and traded as high as GBX 160 ($2.13) Montanaro European Smaller shares last traded at GBX 159.50 ($2.12) a current ratio of 3.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.64 The firm has a market cap of £303.39 million The business has a fifty day simple moving average of GBX 151.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of GBX 147.49 Before you consider Montanaro European Smaller MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on.. and Montanaro European Smaller wasn't on the list While Montanaro European Smaller currently has a Hold rating among analysts top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys View The Five Stocks Here Market downturns give many investors pause Enter your email address to learn more about using beta to protect your portfolio Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools Down through the years we shared many special blessings It is one that will warm our hearts forever Sign up today to receive email newsletters of local daily obituaries Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Have the latest food and drink articles delivered to your inbox every Thursday Have the latest local news delivered every afternoon so you don't miss out on updates Get the Register Star and Daily Mail E-edition delivered directly to your inbox Have the latest local news delivered every morning so you don't miss out on updates Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account Robbie Montanaro joined the Huskies coaching staff in August of 2024 Montanaro spent this past year as the first assistant at Adrian College Montanaro was previously the head coach at Boston University Academy where he led the Terriers to an 11-1 record and a league title in 2023 Before his time at Boston University Academy he was a private goalkeeper coach for high school and professional goalkeepers around the country Montanaro graduated from Bates College where he started 47 games in net and made over 200 saves for the Bobcats He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology he got his master’s degree from the University of St Thanks for visiting The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here President Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second term are like nothing we have seen in modern history and mass deportations as he promised on the campaign trail Among the next round of cuts could be an end to nearly all federal funding for public media we talk with NPR Senior Political Editor Domenico Montanaro about the president’s actions in his first 100 days and what federal funding cuts would mean for NPR and its member stations Select music from Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue) Twice as many people said President Trump deserves a grade of F rather than an A for how he's handled his first 100 days in office, according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll Forty-five percent said Trump deserves the failing mark compared to 23% who would pass him with flying colors It's understandable that partisans would have strongly polarized views of the president but it's also notable that half of independents said he deserves an F and only a slim majority of Republicans would give him an A finds Trump's political standing in decline since he was sworn in for a second term It's driven by views of how he's handling the economy and tariffs but a slim majority now also disapproves of how he's handling immigration Trump's overall approval rating is down to 42%, including just 36% among independents. For context, when looking at Gallup's numbers back to Harry Truman this would be the second-worst approval rating for any president at the 100-day mark in those 80 years His economic numbers are even worse — just 39% approve of how Trump is handling the economy Nearly two-thirds believe grocery prices will go up almost 6-in-10 said placing tariffs on imports from other countries hurts the U.S and a strong majority said Trump bears responsibility for the current economic situation and it is not the result of an economy he inherited The survey has a margin of error of +/-3.3 percentage points meaning results could be about 3 points lower or higher It was conducted by phone (both cellphone and landline) text and online panels in both English and Spanish Trump is down a net of 7 points in his approval rating from last month Reflecting the failing grade a plurality gave him 45% strongly disapprove of how he's handling the job And a majority disapproves of nearly all aspects his performance from tariffs (58%) and the economy (55%) to foreign policy (53%) and immigration (52%) Almost half also said they disapprove of how the administration has handled the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia the man who was deported to El Salvador despite a court order saying he should not be deported and the Supreme Court saying the administration should "facilitate" his return The administration says he is a gang member A judge said the evidence supporting that is flimsy Just 35% said they approve of how the administration has handled the case respondents said they think Trump has put the country on the wrong path they said Trump's policies have negatively impacted them including two-thirds of Democrats and half of independents nothing helped Trump win more in the 2024 presidential election than his promise to bring prices down and many Americans' nostalgia for the pre-COVID economy But 64% now believe grocery prices will increase When it comes to tariffs on imports from other countries so Trump's base appears to be continuing to give him a long leash About 1-in-5 said they have changed their buying habits by speeding up some purchases because of the tariffs; 28% said they have delayed buying some things respondents said this is Trump's economy and not the result of something he inherited That includes 61% of independents and a third of Republicans An increasing majority — 61% — said Trump is rushing to make changes — up 5 points from last month — while about 4-in-10 think he's doing what needs to be done The overwhelming majority — 85% — said Trump should follow court orders Three-quarters of Democrats strongly agree with that sentiment A majority — 54% — have an unfavorable opinion of the man who is leading the Trump administration's government-cutting effort the informal Department of Government Efficiency 36% have a favorable opinion of DOGE more broadly Musk's omnipresent role in the Trump administration may be coming to a close by the end of next month That's when his informal governmental advisory position expires — and amid a 71% drop in his company Tesla's profits Musk said last week he would be spending less time devoted to DOGE soon Become an NPR sponsor Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors the daughter of Stephen and Laura Orzechowski Salagi She worked for Mahoning and Dollar Bank and retired from Dollar Bank in 1994 She especially enjoyed her trips to Italy and Las Vegas Audrey will always be lovingly remembered by her children David Montanaro and Lisa (Ralph) Montanaro-Misko; four grandchildren Erica (Brady) Phillips and Andrea (Patrick) Krownapple; eight great-grandchildren; and a brother there will be private services for the family Arrangements have been entrusted to the professional care of the Rossi Brothers and Lellio Funeral Home Family and friends may visit the Book of Memories at www.rossifunerals.com to view this tribute and send condolences to Audrey’s family Copyright © 2025 Eastern Ohio Newspapers, Inc. | https://www.vindy.com | 240 Franklin Street SE, Warren, OH 44482 | 330-841-1600 | Terms of Service Italian apple brand Sambòa has appointed Giulia Montanaro former head of international relations at the country’s apple industry association Assomela Montanaro assumes direct responsibility for the company’s emerging Sambòa Network a group of connected licensees and partners that are set to take part in the project this network is expected to back joint marketing and communication activities designed to raise awareness of the brand as production volumes increase Sambòa is currently in its third commercial season and customer expectations are “extremely high” following an apparently successful debut for Luiza the first of its three extra-sweet varieties More than 200ha of that trio have now been planted so far in Italy with a further 100ha planned for spring 2025 This year’s harvest is expected to reach around 4,000 tonnes 1,200 tonnes of Venice and 1,000 tonnes of Isadora Site powered by Webvision Cloud Share on FacebookShare on X (formerly Twitter)Share on PinterestShare on LinkedInTALLAHASSEE (WCTV) - WCTV needs your help to promote literacy among children in the capital city WCTV is hosting read-alongs with our reporters and anchors to highlight “Let’s Read,” a collaboration between WCTV and Midtown Reader to raise funds for purchasing books for students at Title 1 schools in Leon County our team will read a children’s book live here on wctv.tv for families across the Big Bend to enjoy WCTV anchor Julie Montanaro read “Shoe-La-La” on Thursday WCTV anchors read children’s books for the ‘Let’s Read’ program Donations will go towards three yearly book fairs at the Title 1 schools to ensure students can attend the fair and take home two books for free you can help a child in need take home a book and start their home library The donations are the second part of the “Let’s Read” initiative the first part called “One Book Tally,” launched in collaboration with the Leon County Public Library System To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and X (Twitter) Have a news tip or see an error that needs attention? Write to us here Please include the article’s headline in your message Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click here to get started Montanaro UK Smaller Companies (LON:MTU - Get Free Report)'s share price crossed below its 50 day moving average during trading on Wednesday The stock has a 50 day moving average of GBX 96.86 ($1.29) and traded as low as GBX 95.64 ($1.27) Montanaro UK Smaller Companies shares last traded at GBX 97.20 ($1.29) The stock has a 50-day moving average of GBX 96.58 and a 200 day moving average of GBX 101.60 The stock has a market cap of £166.35 million a current ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.83 The firm also recently declared a dividend May 15th will be issued a GBX 4 ($0.05) dividend This is a positive change from Montanaro UK Smaller Companies's previous dividend of $1.03 The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday Montanaro UK Smaller Companies's dividend payout ratio is presently 31.67% insider Yuuichiro Nakajima purchased 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 107 ($1.42) per share for a total transaction of £5,350 ($7,111.52) insider Barbara Powley acquired 13,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday The stock was purchased at an average cost of GBX 93 ($1.24) per share with a total value of £12,555 ($16,688.82) Before you consider Montanaro UK Smaller Companies and Montanaro UK Smaller Companies wasn't on the list While Montanaro UK Smaller Companies currently has a Hold rating among analysts It's the hottest energy sector of the year and BWX Technologies were all up more than 40% in 2024 The biggest market moves could still be ahead of us and there are seven nuclear energy stocks that could rise much higher in the next several months Shares of Montanaro UK Smaller Companies (LON:MTU - Get Free Report) passed below its 50-day moving average during trading on Tuesday The stock has a 50-day moving average of GBX 98.03 ($1.32) and traded as low as GBX 93.40 ($1.25) Montanaro UK Smaller Companies shares last traded at GBX 93.40 ($1.25) with a volume of 51,350 shares changing hands The company has a market capitalization of £160.69 million a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.12 and a beta of 0.98 The firm has a 50-day moving average price of GBX 97.18 and a 200-day moving average price of GBX 101.79 a quick ratio of 41.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.83 The company also recently declared a dividend May 15th will be given a dividend of GBX 4 ($0.05) per share This is a boost from Montanaro UK Smaller Companies's previous dividend of $1.03 Montanaro UK Smaller Companies's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.67% insider Yuuichiro Nakajima bought 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday The shares were acquired at an average cost of GBX 107 ($1.44) per share for a total transaction of £5,350 ($7,187.96) insider Barbara Powley bought 13,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday The stock was bought at an average price of GBX 93 ($1.25) per share for a total transaction of £12,555 ($16,868.20) Unlock your free copy of MarketBeat's comprehensive guide to pot stock investing and discover which cannabis companies are poised for growth you'll get exclusive access to our daily newsletter with expert stock recommendations from Wall Street's top analysts Research that is free to access for all investors Companies commission these providers to write research about them Brokers who write research on their corporate clients and make it available through our main bundle offering Research that is paid for directly by asset managers Only accessible to institutional investors permissioned for access Montanaro UK Smaller Companies - Update from QuotedData MTU's combination of a high dividend yield and a strong focus on quality growth stocks differentiates it from peers UK equities were cheap relative to their history and to developed market peers prior to the tariff-related sell off; now they are even cheaper the quality-growth small-cap stocks in which MTU invests have been out of vogue recently with the market favouring large-cap value stocks instead As MTU's manager Charles Montanaro points out the historic valuation gap provides investors with an attractive entry point History has shown that buying stocks on these sorts of valuations can produce attractive long-term returns and the magnitude of the discount of the UK's equity market relative to other developed global equity markets could in itself be a catalyst for the UK market to rerate https://quoteddata.com/research/montanaro-uk-smaller-companies-high-growth-bigger-yield-qd/ This research is also available free on our website www.quoteddata.com where you will also find news performance data and factsheets on every London listed Investment Company QuotedData writes and distributes research on a number of quoted companies facilitates meetings between those companies and existing and potential investors and assists in raising additional capital where required NB: Marten & Co was paid to produce this note Montanaro UK Smaller Companies Investment Trust Plc It is not intended to encourage the reader to deal in the security or securities mentioned in this report Please read the important information at the back of this note QuotedData is a trading name of Marten & Co Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Marten & Co is not permitted to provide investment advice to individual investors categorised as Retail Clients under the rules of the Financial Conduct Authority www.quoteddata.com | research@quoteddata.com | www.martenandco.com please advise if you are one of the following: You need a subscription to view this content as a commercial user [We welcome the trust’s efforts to improve things for shareholders The regular 5% tender offers are an interesting idea but our hope would be that the discount narrows sufficiently that they become redundant.] MTE : Montanaro European announces three strategic initiatives Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" In QuotedData’s morning briefing 17 April 2025: We also have: Did you see from yesterday In QuotedData’s morning briefing 27 March 2025: STS Global Income & Growth (STS) says that Tomasz joined Troy’s investment team eight years ago and has been an assistant fund manager for STS Global Income and Growth since Troy’s appointment […] This website is for information purposes only and is not intended to encourage the reader to deal in the security or securities mentioned Please review our cookie, privacy & data protection and terms and conditions policies and please select your place of residence and whether you are a private or professional investor Lloyd’s Caroline Sandeman-Allen will take the reins from Peter Montanaro next month as market oversight director at the Corporation You have reached the limit for gifting for this month Insurance Insider is the premier intelligence solution for the London and global (re)insurance markets Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy and many Kitsap candidates have already submitted their names for the numerous local seats… One of Washington’s largest skill-building centers saw a massive funding increase this legislative session Melissa Super-Greene has been selected as the next principal of South Kitsap High School Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions Search autocomplete is currently not responding Read this week's township newsletter, Hazlet Citizen Weekly. Read on... View the latest Hazlet Senior Center Newsletter Read on... Hazlet Township Mayor Michael Sachs and members of the Hazlet Township Committee were among the many members of the community who attended West Keansburg Fire Company's 100 Anniversary Banquet on March 15 at Jacques Reception Center.  Sign Up below to receive alerts from Hazlet Township - a FREE service.  Fill out the form on this page Read on... One pint of blood can save up to three lives Be a hero and support our Hazlet Township first responders as they organize and run this monthly blood drive in our community with NYBC.  NJ – The Monmouth County Board of County Commissioners is proud to announce their latest transportation initiative formerly known as Special Citizens Area Transportation (SCAT) at a launch event on .. Hazlet Recreation sponsors fun and engaging community events 2025 Primary Election: Key Dates & Deadlines Any Monmouth County resident can go to any shredding event.  all of the 2025 shredding events will be held from 9 a.m at the  parking lot near the James J Discover fresh produce artisan goods and local treasures Hazlet Township's annual celebration day is coming on Saturday We welcome you to join us at Hazlet Township's Veterans Park Hazlet Recreation is hiring now for Summer 2025 positions. Please fill out an application, even if you are a returning employee Monmouth 250 AnnouncementsFrom the Monmouth250 website America’s 250th anniversary is coming in 2026 New Jersey will celebrate the birth of the greatest nation in the world and its significant role in the fight for independence... 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Phone: 732-264-1700 HOST: We're going to start with a bird's eye view of President Trump's third week back in the White House.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal This could be something that could be so - this could be so magnificent.MARTIN: Besides the plan he revealed for Gaza Trump is attempting to overhaul the federal workforce and end diversity equity and inclusion programs - and another thing or two or 10 Joining us now to talk about all this is NPR's senior political editor and correspondent you have a new analysis on npr.org this morning that breaks down by day everything that happened this week And it's incredible just how much did happen I take it that this is a strategy.MONTANARO: Yeah it's been a philosophy of Trump's and the people around him for years Here's former Trump adviser Steve Bannon speaking to PBS' Frontline in 2019.(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW "FRONTLINE")STEVE BANNON: All we have to do is flood the zone but we got to start with muzzle velocities.MONTANARO: So that's the idea - get it all out there as fast as possible so that some things maybe slide by And the first three weeks of the Trump presidency have certainly lived up to that idea.MARTIN: Well there have been dozens of executive orders and lots of cabinet appointees who are getting through ready to carry - despite the fact that many of them are very controversial you know - and they're ready to carry out what Trump wants done.MONTANARO: Yeah he's getting his people in place - even Robert F They look like they're on their way to being confirmed to those positions despite what have been bipartisan concerns We also saw Pam Bondi confirmed for attorney general she set up a group to review the work related to the cases that were brought up against President Trump.MARTIN: We also saw Trump announce tariffs against Canada and Mexico and then immediately delay them a month.MONTANARO: Yeah 25% tariffs were supposed to go into effect on them this week But Trump said he was delaying those to work out deals with them on immigration Ten percent tariffs on China did go into effect is going to be operating on the world stage under Trump trying to get what he sees as the best deal in a short-term And that's to say nothing of Trump's continued attempt to expand America's footprint something that allies and stakeholders in the region have said is a complete nonstarter.MARTIN: And then there is what Trump and Elon Musk are trying to do with the federal workforce and shrink the size of government What do we learn about Musk's efforts?MONTANARO: Yeah this informal Department of Government Efficiency has been at multiple agencies accessing records including sensitive payment information at the Treasury Department And there's this effort to get federal workers to resign by a buyout.MARTIN: Which a judge yesterday moved the deadline from yesterday at midnight to Monday.MONTANARO: Right And the administration has pushed very hard to shut down USAID which is responsible for doling out about half of U.S let me ask you about the administration's battle against DEI policies What steps did it take this week?MONTANARO: Yeah Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports The NCAA said that it'll adjust to the order But I want to play this exchange between Senator Dick Durbin who's a former Republican governor from Massachusetts from a hearing earlier this month for some context.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)DICK DURBIN: How many athletes are there in the United States in NCAA schools?CHARLIE BAKER: Five hundred and ten thousand.DURBIN: How many transgender athletes are you aware of?BAKER: Less than 10.MONTANARO: So Durbin went on to stress that number - less than 10 out of 510,000 a cultural touchstone of the 2024 campaign like photos of women and minorities at the National Cryptologic Museum that were covered up Those were later removed after public outcry It's really a push to systematically remove any idea that diversity and multiculturalism are good things in this country Conservatives have long viewed the culture in the country as moving too far in a liberal direction and they're certainly trying to change all of that now.MARTIN: That is NPR's Domenico Montanaro Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information HOST: Democrats have not had a lot of good news since Donald Trump returned to the White House but elections in Wisconsin and Florida last night are giving them some glimmers of hope and Republicans some cause for concern NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro is here So how much hope could Democrats really take away from what happened last night?MONTANARO: Well the candidate that Democrats endorsed in the Wisconsin judicial race and that's a state that went for Trump by a point in 2024 Republicans did win the two special elections for congressional seats in Florida and Democrats cut into the margins there pretty significantly And margins are what matter in special elections The party that consistently overperforms in them leading up to midterms usually does pretty well in them that's all big for a party like Democrats that have been reeling really since Trump came into office Democrats have seen their lowest favorability ratings ever in recent polling so they'll take what they can get right now Wisconsin was something of a rejection of Elon Musk.SUMMERS: Yeah been at Trump's right hand since he was sworn in - he played a big role in this race What has the reaction been like today?MONTANARO: Yeah and that a voter ID measure that was passed was really the important thing he went there to promote the conservative candidate before the election - he said that the "entire destiny of humanity" could rest on the judicial race Talk about raising the stakes.SUMMERS: Right.MONTANARO: So I think he cared a little bit about winning this race And we're now seeing some local Republican officials publicly questioning whether it was a good idea for Musk to play in the race at all few things have upset them more since Trump became president than that - than all the haphazard firings and cuts to the federal government that Musk has led with DOGE his informal department of government efficiency Polls have shown Musk and DOGE to be unpopular And this Wisconsin race was affirmation of that for Democrats that they feel like they can run against what he's been doing And there are probably lots of Republicans in Congress privately pretty happy about what happened in Wisconsin.SUMMERS: Why is that?MONTANARO: Well they've been facing a lot of tough questions from constituents at town halls I'm sure lots of them would be thrilled to see Musk take a step back and be less of a face of Trump's agenda especially since he's also been out there calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme and saying that entitlements probably have to be cut Those are the kinds of things that are political kryptonite normally and they really run contrary to Trump's own messaging A lot of people really do support the idea of cutting the federal government but in a more measured and targeted way.SUMMERS: Is there any evidence to suggest that Trump is going to break with Musk?MONTANARO: Well Musk's appointment already has a rough end date The special government consultant role he has expires after about 130 days Musk has adjusted his public language about the cuts He's gone from parading on the stage with a chainsaw to saying that the team is simply aiming for targeted cuts Wisconsin makes it that much easier for Trump to cut ties with Musk and say that that was the plan all along if that's what he winds up deciding to do.SUMMERS: I'm wondering if there is a lesson that Democrats can learn here about what kind of message led to results like those we saw in those elections last night and whether this can be replicated.MONTANARO: Well this is less about a framing of progressive versus moderate or center versus left as opposed to realizing these off-year elections are about Democratic voters want people they think are going to fight for their morals and for their values So it's really about fighting versus acquiescence And Wisconsin Democrats will tell you that their candidates did just that standing up for abortion rights or the state school superintendent who won her election fighting for - against the closure of the Department of Education It's especially important in midterm elections when turnout is lower than presidentials energy is most important.SUMMERS: NPR's Domenico Montanaro Montanaro Asset Management’s former business development head has set up a funds distribution firm.  which takes its name from the house Norman-Butler grew up in is an outsourced distribution and client-servicing business focused on the UK and Ireland Norman-Butler left his head of business development post at Montanaro AM in August 15 years after joining the funds boutique as a research analyst Governor Ron DeSantis announces the appointment of Jonathan Bronitsky and Michelle Montanaro to the Judicial Qualifications Commission The Judicial Qualifications Commission is charged with investigating allegations of misconduct of justices and judges The Governor must appoint non-attorneys to the fifteen-member commission is the Co-Founder and CEO of Athos Media Strategies Previously he served as Principal Director of Public Affairs Agency for Global Media and the Deputy Director of Communications for the U.S Office of Personnel Management in addition to his roles as the Chief Speechwriter for U.S Bronitsky is appointed for the remainder of a term expiring on December 31 Previously she served as a Judicial Assistant at the Second Judicial Circuit Court Montanaro is appointed for the remainder of a term expiring on December 31 NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro has been digging into how President-elect Trump won a second time and at the end of this massively eventful week BYLINE: Hey - great to be with you.SHAPIRO: We know that Trump won over historic margins with a number of voting groups Can you dig into why that happened?MONTANARO: Well the landscape of the issues in this election really favored Republicans for years President Biden's approval dropped with the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan His approval rating really hasn't recovered since.Despite improvements in inflation Americans haven't viewed the economy positively groceries remain relatively expensive because the very fixed inflation the Federal Reserve raising interest rates And many people were upset about high border crossings the bottom line is people were in a bad mood and blamed President Biden is to separate yourself from the administration's policies.SHAPIRO: So are you saying Harris was really dragged down by Biden She just wasn't able to break from him.MONTANARO: I mean she was performing better than Biden on who people trust more on the economy But when three-quarters of people say inflation caused them a degree of hardship two-thirds have a negative view of the economy and only a quarter of people think that they're better off now than they were four years ago economically that's tough to overcome when you're the party in power.SHAPIRO: OK We know a president's accomplishments are closely tied to control of Congress We don't yet know which party will control the House Where does that stand?MONTANARO: It's very close There's a lot left to count on the West Coast It's still possible Democrats win the House but right now Republicans have the edge to keep it with anywhere from a one- to maybe four-seat majority And that would be an even tighter margin potentially They've struggled to keep their coalition together So either party is going to face differing degrees of challenges in trying to govern.SHAPIRO: There was some speculation coming in the Democrats could do it Why does it look like that's not going to happen?MONTANARO: Well pick up or hold on to some house seats that maybe they weren't expected to But it's really hard to swim against that tide at the top of the ticket where Democrats very narrowly lost and might have won if Harris had won the state what we're looking at now is a very narrow House majority regardless of who wins control and whoever's in charge won't have a lot of margin for error here.SHAPIRO: Unsurprisingly Democrats are finger-pointing and soul-searching What's your take on where they go from here?MONTANARO: This happens after every election And I will say that it's a good motto for all things in life but beware of people offering simple solutions for complex problems nobody knows exactly what will happen or how or if Democrats dig out of this they had won these previously solidly Democratic groups who were more working-class And that's a trend that we've seen for a while and it was more pronounced in this election The Democratic Party is certainly in danger of becoming a party just for elites and that's difficult to win elections if that's the case.SHAPIRO: So can they dig out from that?MONTANARO: I mean for all the finger-pointing that's going on and is going to take place if a Republican was in the White House when perceptions of the economy were this bad And there have been lots of these reflections in the past 20 years when people thought that what they knew happened and then turned out to be incredibly wrong.I mean Books were written about a potential permanent red majority because white evangelicals were a new force for the Republican Party there was talk of a permanent liberal majority with Obama's win Others were saying that we were in a post-racial America after 2012 Republicans were advocating for comprehensive immigration reform because they thought they'd never be able to win over Latinos if they didn't.Well they went in a very decisively different direction with Donald Trump and he has apparently won a record share of them for a Republican ever We shouldn't profess to know how things will change it's that the right candidate at the right time with the right environment wins even when it's hard to see that path now.SHAPIRO: NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information Over the year ending 31 March 2025, MTU’s shares traded within a discount to NAV range of 17.8% to 7.0% with an average discount of 12.5% and a median discount of 12.4% MTU’s shares were trading at a discount of 10.0% MTU’s discount widened significantly over 2023 primarily due to the impact of higher interest rates on investor demand for growth stocks and related funds the discount has begun to narrow over the past year More information is available at the manager’s website www.montanaro.co.uk/muscit The trust raised £25m at launch in 1995 and topped that up with a £30m C share issue the following year. Today, the trust has a market cap of £130m. Whilst MTU has always retained the same focus on UK small-cap opportunities, it has evolved its dividend policy and pays out c.6% of its NAV each year (described in the next section) Readers may wish to refer to our last note on MTU MAML has one of the largest teams in Europe (and the largest in the UK) focused on researching and investing in quoted small- and mid-cap companies multi-lingual and multi-national (12 different nationalities) and there is relatively little turnover of staff MAML’s managers believe that the company is best served by operating with a maximum of approximately 40 staff members so as to preserve the culture of a boutique outfit (smaller size with a specialised culture) We find it encouraging that MAML will continue to devote its resources towards its current strategies as opposed to aggressively growing the company MAML has AUM (assets under management) of more than £3bn Charles Montanaro and his family together own 60% of the business with the remaining 30% owned by Montanaro’s staff though an employee benefit trust established in 2025 MTU’s new 6% dividend is a key differentiator As flagged in MTU’s semi-annual results released in December 2024 MTU began paying a regular quarterly dividend equivalent to 1.5% of its NAV (up from 1% per quarter under its previous enhanced dividend policy) resulting in an annual yield of approximately 6% of NAV This equates to a yield on its share price of around 6.6% at the current c effectively positioning MTU as one of the highest-yielding trusts in its sector and one of the highest of all UK-focused investment companies MTU’s preference is to invest in high-quality which typically reinvest cash rather than distributing this as dividends the trust will offer a significantly higher payout than the natural yield generated from its holdings MTU reported a yield on the underlying portfolio of 3.7% Amongst the almost-400 UK equity strategies covered by either the Investment Association (covering open-ended funds) and the Association of Investment Companies the 6.5% yield implied by MTU’s new enhanced dividend policy would place it in the top 10 highest-yielding UK equity funds as at time of writing (and one of only seven strategies offering yields in excess of 6%) and therefore in the top 2% of the wider group regardless of investment style It would also be only one of two strategies that offer exposure to the “growth” and “small cap” styles (according to Morningstar’s classifications) to offer yields in excess of 3% UK small caps are at historically wide discounts compared to global equities the UK equity market remains one of the most attractively valued among developed markets This is particularly true for smaller companies which not only offer compelling valuations but also a broader diversity of businesses compared to the UK’s large-cap sector When comparing the expected valuations of the UK small-cap market to the global equity universe using forward P/E ratios (a common measure of how expensive or cheap stocks are relative to expected profits) we find that the UK small-cap segment (based on data from the MSCI UK Small Cap Index) trades at a forward P/E ratio (one based on future anticipated earnings) that is less than 70% of that of global equities this ratio has remained below 0.7x that of global equities since the end of 2024 with the MSCI ACWI (a global index that tracks the performance of over 3,000 equities across developed and emerging markets) trading on a current forward P/E ratio of 21.5x This represents a new threshold for the relative cheapness of UK equities marking the only three-month period in the last 15 years where the UK small-cap sector has traded at valuations less than 70% of the wider global market Charles has highlighted the compelling entry point presented by UK valuations investing in the UK small-cap market when valuations are at the lower end of their historical range has historically led to stronger long-term returns investors who entered the market at valuation levels similar to those at the end of 2024 – when its adjusted P/E stood at 15.6x – could have expected an annualised return of approximately 15% over the subsequent five years MTU is not only well-positioned to benefit from the historically cheap valuations of UK small-cap equities but also from its emphasis on “quality growth” companies (those with strong profitability The relative performance of the “quality” factor has now fallen significantly below its long-term average suggesting significant potential for recovery Although this relative underperformance can be partially attributed to the sharp correction from historic highs – driven by the effects of rising inflation and interest rates on highly valued stocks – the market sell-off looks excessive with data in Figure 3 indicating that performance is well below its two-decade norm The significant deviations in performance and valuation may be sufficient to pique investor interest the UK services sector continues to report improving confidence consistently posting month-on-month PMI figures above 50 over the past 18 months although the recent reading of -20 at the end of February suggests a slightly less negative outlook (the consumer confidence index ranges between -100 and +100 with increasingly positive numbers indicating growing consumer confidence and increasingly negative values indicating greater consumer pessimism) Whilst it may take time for this period of uncertainty to ease some investors have already begun to take advantage of the opportunities presented by current valuations Private equity (PE) activity within the UK remains elevated with transaction volumes up 4.4% over 2024 and deal values increasing by 12% Although these figures are surpassed by the post-COVID-19 surge in PE activity transaction volumes in 2021 and 2022 were driven by pent-up demand following COVID and an abundance of cheap financing (low-interest borrowing) that were not present last year Deal volumes in 2024 remained above their pre-COVID levels and market commentators suggest there is potential for further growth into 2025 There are some tentative signs of renewed interest in the UK market the UK’s listed equity market has finally shown tentative signs of revival Despite experiencing another year of investor outflows and underperformance in 2024 the UK market has started 2025 on a stronger footing the MSCI UK All Cap Index has outperformed the MSCI ACWI ex UK Index year-to-date returning 7.0% versus global equities’ 2.0% the UK fund market recorded its first net positive inflow in November 2024 on the back of the Labour budget Whilst this is a small fraction compared to the £9.5bn in total outflows over 2024 it broke a 41-month streak of continuous outflows from UK equities although it has reverted back to outflows in the months that have followed The UK market still has considerable ground to recover to reverse years of investor apathy; its rock-bottom valuations – coupled with comparatively stable political conditions given recent global headlines – may be sufficient to sustain a revival in investor interest Regardless of how quickly investor sentiment improves MTU’s portfolio companies continue to report robust earnings demonstrating resilience despite the historic scepticism towards the UK Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs have hit global equity markets hard as things currently stand Trump has given a 90-day reprieve to countries that have not yet implemented reciprocal tariffs in an apparent attempt to force its trading partners back to the negotiation table And while the story is developing with each passing day market pundits have already begun to wonder whether the UK’s competitive advantage may improve as a result of these tariffs (assuming higher tariff levels kick in for some of the UK’s competitors after the 90 period ends) With its good exports set to receive the minimum 10% charge the UK could find that it is able to price its output more competitively than some other This may partly explain why the UK government has taken a more diplomatic response to the new regime than others When looking at the possible impact on the UK market it is important to remember that many of the largest companies in the index are global businesses that have been beneficiaries of the trend towards globalisation in the past Many are also exposed to the knock-on effects of the tariffs on global growth And while UK small caps may not rack up the same volumes of exports to the US the international nature of global supply chains plus the global market leadership of some of MTU’s holdings MAML’s purpose is to deliver strong and sustainable investment returns to investors by investing responsibly in quoted, high-quality growth smaller companies. It invests conservatively and for the long term, and does not invest in derivatives or lend the stock in its portfolios. It avoids loss-making companies, highly-leveraged companies MAML’s staff are encouraged to invest in its funds to better align their interests with those of the underlying investors MAML has a strong emphasis on proprietary research MAML’s core values underpin its business and its approach to investing The company invests in simple businesses it can understand This could be summed up as investing in high-quality growth businesses at sensible prices An internal investment committee reviews the portfolio every quarter which reduces the dependence on any one individual – including Charles – for performance (providing oversight and ensuring continuity in the investment approach) The trust, by virtue of its structure, can have exposure to less-liquid stocks and MAML has permission to hold up to 40% in AIM stocks it is unlikely that it would hold more than 30% A well-resourced team allows analysts to be well prepared and to set the agenda for meetings with investee companies each analyst will seek to identify 20 stocks within their sector coverage worthy of closer scrutiny each analyst will seek to identify around 20 stocks within their sector coverage worthy of closer scrutiny These will form the pool from which portfolio constituents are drawn and highly indebted businesses are rejected Stocks that fit structural growth themes that the team has identified may be prioritised Each company within the universe is assigned a quality rating (D to AAA) Both management and the board of potential investee companies are closely examined as MAML looks to predict where a company might be in five to ten years Various valuation tools are considered and the team operates with a time horizon of five to 10 years Analysts will then assign a recommendation to each stock These will be presented to the whole team at weekly meetings and the fund managers will then decide which stocks make it into portfolios it will usually remain there for many years an increase from 35 holdings in March 2024 (as referenced in our previous note) The median market capitalisation of these companies was £971m MTU’s portfolio retains the same high-quality metrics that are typically attributed to its holdings, with MTU reporting superior return on equity, earnings margins, balance sheet strength and sales growth when compared to its benchmark Deutsche Numis SmallCap (excluding investment companies) Index (according to market expectations for 2025) Given MTU’s inherently low turnover (the extent to which a portfolio’s holdings change over a year with higher turnover implying more active trading and vice versa) and preference for sustained earnings growth we think the reduction in the premium is likely a result of the market’s aversion to UK stocks rather than Charles’s trading activity or investment performance – further evidence of the valuation opportunity presented by MTU and the UK market MTU’s portfolio has moved away from the largest and smallest segments of its universe Changes in MTU’s market capitalisation exposure have been more deliberate Charles has moved away from both the larger and smaller ends of its investable universe reflecting a conscious decision to decrease exposure to certain segments of the AIM market Since our last note (which used 31 March 2024 data) there have been five new entrants to MTU’s top 10 holdings: Hilton Foods and were the result of significant new investment by Charles Charles also trimmed his exposure to Cranswick and Greggs over the period Bytes Technology was covered in our previous note We also include a description of IntegraFin a noteworthy purchase made since our last note as well as descriptions of the major sales over 2024 Hilton Foods (hiltonfoods.com) is a food processing and packaging company specialising in meat the company operates across Europe and Oceania and is seeking further expansion into the Asia-Pacific region Hilton’s recent results for the six months ending 30 June 2024 were broadly positive despite showing a mix of sales volume growth and price contraction Revenue declined by 8.4% to £1.94bn over the six months but still reflected a year-on-year increase of 1.0% Notably these results were outweighed by a significant improvement in profitability with margins increasing to 2.4% (profit margin improvement reflects better efficiency and pricing control) This growth was driven by stronger performance in the company’s meat and seafood divisions Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) (balticclassifieds.com) is a UK-listed Lithuanian company operating multiple online classifieds websites across the Baltic region (Lithuania Its platforms cover four distinct business lines: automotive MTU initiated a position in BCG in the third quarter of 2024 BCG is well-positioned to capitalise on growth in the Baltic region This trend was evident in BCG’s recent half-year results with revenue increasing by 17% over the six months to 31 October 2024 All segments reported positive growth during the period with real estate leading the way with a 26% increase in revenue Management attributed this strong performance to improving economic conditions which have particularly benefitted real estate demand BCG’s management maintains a positive outlook for the second half of its financial year forecasting revenue growth of at least 15% and further margin expansion as the year progresses Key structural drivers supporting this optimism include the ongoing recovery in real estate transaction volumes and the broader shift towards digital classified ads In addition to driving operational improvements management has taken steps to strengthen the company’s financial position This includes the voluntary repayment of €12m in debt JTC (www.jtcgroup.com) describes itself as a professional services business that offers fund services private client services and institutional client services (for example JTC reported 2024 revenue growth above management’s expectations with organic growth coming in at 11.3% versus the 10% anticipated Revenue growth was enhanced by successful acquisitions of six companies over the period adding an additional 7.3% to its revenue (for a total of 18.6% 2024 was also the 37th consecutive year of revenue and profit growth for JTC with before-tax profits increasing by 17.1% JTC’s management note that the implementation of their “Cosmos” strategic plan as being a major driver of their returns the objective of the plan is to double JTC’s size by 2027 – targeting revenues of £500m and an EBITDA of £170m JTC’s management intend to achieve this through a combination of strategic acquisitions improving organic growth (targeting 10% per annum) With JCT having already hit the annual key targets of its plan over 2024 management expects the business to be on track to deliver similar numbers over 2025 Telecom Plus (telecomplus.com) is a telecommunications and utilities provider electricity and internet services to residential and small business customers in the UK Telecom Plus was the second-largest purchase made by MTU over 2024 Telecom Plus has since reported mixed results with its revenues declining but profitability improving (over the six months to September 2024) Revenues fell 21% over that six months due to lower retail energy prices over the year (energy revenues are sensitive to wholesale price movements) Thankfully Telecom Plus’s management was more than able to offset the fall in revenues with improving profitability This can be attributed to the third consecutive year of double-digit customer growth – up 13% over the period – as well as the launch of several new products Despite the headwinds from energy price volatility and the costs associated with Labour’s recent budget Telecom Plus’s managers are supportive of the near-term They highlight cost-of-living challenges driving demand for their money-saving bundled services improving customer signups from their partnership model (e.g referrals from professional services firms) and the general growth in demand for electric vehicle charging and high-speed broadband Management has reiterated its medium-term target of 2m customers with 12-14% customer growth over the next six months and a pre-tax profit between £124–128m (with six-month pre-tax profits of £46.1m) IntegraFin (www.integrafin.co.uk) is the UK’s largest investment platform It is primarily used by financial advisors and best known for its ownership of Transact The company has over £60bn in funds held on its platform and is used by over 8,000 advisors IntegraFin has continued to hit all-time highs for asset inflows adding £900m in new assets being during the first three months of the current financial year alone This was driven by a combination of improved digitisation of its services allowing it to appeal to a wider audience; improved investment performance with management highlighting the US election and UK budget as key flashpoints for increased investor activity; and ongoing improvements to its platform’s functionality MTU made two significant disposals over 2024 an acquisition group focused on scientific instrument businesses Charles and the team had previously raised concerns around the frequent changes to its renumeration policy with the salary increases for its CEO and CFO being standout issues MTU also sold its entire £4.3m stake in Judges Scientific due to its declining earnings outlook MTU’s NAV gave back much of its previous outperformance relative to its benchmark between late 2020 and 2021 coinciding with the broader sell-off in growth stocks compared to other investment styles This decline was driven by the then-rising interest rate environment with post-lockdown inflation prompting the Bank of England to raise rates to levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis (higher interest rates tend to reduce the valuations of growth stocks which tend to have a greater proportion of their value discounted back from the future) Although relative performance began to stabilise in 2022 UK small-cap value stocks have continued to outperform growth stocks leading to a gradual widening of the performance gap between MTU and its index Another key factor affecting MTU’s recent performance has been the changes to the tax treatment of AIM-listed stocks certain AIM stocks qualified for inheritance tax relief) has intensified selling pressure in the sector MTU maintains approximately 16% exposure to AIM which has inevitably impacted MTU’s relative performance It is worth noting that the Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM ex IC Index underperformed its non-AIM equivalent (MTU’s benchmark) by 13.0% when comparing the MSCI UK Small Growth Index to MTU’s benchmark (the Numis Smaller Companies ex Investment Companies Index) the relative underperformance closely tracks that of MTU Given MTU’s higher exposure to the “growth” and “quality” style factors than the MSCI UK Small Growth Index one might have expected the macroeconomic headwinds to have had an even greater impact on MTU This suggests that Charles’s stock selection may have mitigated potential losses It is worth reiterating that Charles does not factor macroeconomic considerations into portfolio construction he focuses on long-term company fundamentals (such as returns on equity aiming for performance to be driven by the sustained success of their portfolio holdings rather than attempting to time macroeconomic events (such as interest rate cycles or economic recessions) There were a number of standout performers as well as key detractors over 2024 The top and bottom five performers are listed in Figure 18 and more information about some of them is detailed in the following pages XPS Pensions (xpsgroup.com) is a pensions consultancy and administration firm Its share price rose by 68% over the 12 months to the end of January 2025 and rallied a further 17% in February following a positive trading update Whilst management had anticipated a more challenging market environment in the second half of the financial year it now expects full-year results to show 15–16% year-on-year revenue growth supported by sustained demand continuing into the latter half of the year Raspberry Pi (raspberrypi.org) is a Cambridge-based designer and manufacturer of small, single-board computers – which can be programmed for a wide variety of uses. The company IPO’d in 2024 and stands out for being a domestic UK technology company that has bucked the trend by listing in the UK rather than the US The company’s share price has more increased 65% from its 360p listing price to 595p per share as of 28 February 2025 The majority of these gains occurred in December 2024 the company announced a strategic partnership with SECO enabling SECO to bring to market a new Human-Machine Interface solution based on Raspberry Pi’s latest product it was revealed that US hedge fund SW Investment Management had acquired a 3.59% stake in the company Raspberry Pi also reported positive results for the first six months of its financial year (to 30 June 2024) with profits exceeding market expectations although sales volumes were slightly below forecasts management reiterated its full-year guidance anticipating higher unit volumes in the second half of the year Games Workshop (games-workshop.com) is a specialist UK hobby retailer best known for its Warhammer line of miniatures and tabletop wargames Following several years of strong earnings and share price growth Games Workshop’s shares rallied significantly in November after the release of another positive set of results for the six months ending 1 December 2024 driven by increased demand for both its core wargaming products and its licensing revenues (royalties from third-party adaptations of its intellectual property) the company also reported growth in its physical retail stores – a channel that has been under sustained pressure for many other retailers The final two months of the financial period were particularly robust with management expecting similarly strong performance in the second half of the financial year management has continued to invest in the business Plans include opening 30 new stores across East Asia and expanding production capabilities through new manufacturing and paint facilities with capital expenditure more than doubling over the period to £14.3m One of the most significant headlines from the company’s annual report was the announcement of an agreement with Amazon to adapt the Warhammer 40,000 universe into films and television series – a development that could further enhance the brand’s global reach The three major detractors from MTU’s performance were market research and data firm YouGov; transportation software developer Tracsis; and self-storage company Big Yellow YouGov’s shares plummeted by 46% in a single day in June after issuing a profit warning revising its 2024 revenue forecast down by 6% and profit expectations by 36% YouGov still projected year-on-year revenue growth and later softened the extent of the revision in the weeks following the announcement the CEO appointed in August 2023 has stepped down and Stephan Shakespeare The company has also appointed a new non-executive chair Tracsis’s share price has been on a steady downward trajectory for much of the past 12 months The company has been an unfortunate casualty of UK political developments with the rail sector – one of its key customer bases – impacted by stalled government spending during the summer general election period The arrival of the Labour government has added further uncertainty regarding future revenues Tracsis has also been affected by the broader sell-off in AIM-listed stocks (AIM companies have been particularly vulnerable to recent shifts in investor sentiment and regulatory changes) Big Yellow’s share price declined by 20% over the final two months of 2024 primarily due to macroeconomic factors rather than company-specific developments Sluggish UK economic growth and a weakening housing market have weighed on investor expectations surrounding demand for storage solutions The peer group that we have used in this note is a subset of funds within the AIC’s UK smaller companies sector. We have omitted split-capital companies and those with an exclusive focus on micro-cap companies MTU’s long-term performance sits towards the bottom of its peer group although as we commented in the previous section MTU’s relative performance may be explained in part by its strong bias to what Charles considers to be quality-growth companies (with Morningstar classifying MTU as having the second-highest growth bias of our peer group) MTU’s ranking has improved in recent months it is a reasonable size – once again sitting roughly middle of the pack for this peer group We note that the yield presented in Figure 28 reflects historic dividend payments following the implementation of its new 6% of NAV payout rank at as the highest-yielding trust in the sector MTU’s ongoing charges ratio sits in line with the peer group median and is comparable to those of much bigger funds in the peer group although its ranking has the potential to improve given the changes outlined on pages 3 and 4 MTU offers the seldom-found combination of an attractive dividend and a growth-stock portfolio MTU has increased its annual dividend payout from 4% to 6% of NAV Dividends will continue to be paid quarterly equivalent to 1.5% of the company’s NAV on the last business day of the preceding financial quarter – specifically at the end of March the nominal payout will vary with fluctuations in the NAV and therefore with movements in the underlying portfolio and markets The adoption of an enhanced dividend policy has not affected the way in which the portfolio is managed or the yield it generates by the underlying portfolio In instances where MTU’s revenues are insufficient to cover the dividend MTU’s primary objective remains capital growth with income generated by the underlying portfolio considered a by-product of the manager’s stock selection decisions MTU’s “quality-growth” investment approach typically does not produce high levels of income The ability to offer this level of payout is a benefit of its investment trust structure The recent narrowing of MTU’s discount can be partially attributed to the changes outlined on pages 3 and 4 A higher dividend profile from MTU has likely increased the range of potential investors in the trust such those whose income demands would have previously prevented ownership which may have lead to greater demand for a unique product like MTU MTU’s management has repurchased 21.5% of the outstanding shares since the start of 2025 Whilst it has been given the authority to buy back shares the managers and board believe that share buy-backs may not the best way to influence the discount given its propensity to shrink trusts (reducing assets under management and market liquidity) they would rather that the inherent attractiveness of MTU’s investment approach and the advantages of its dividend profile The board has begun to utilise this facility and has repurchased 30m shares since the beginning of 2025 In January 2025 the board announced their intention to keep MTU’s discount “at single digits in normal market conditions” with shareholders voting to renew MTU’s buyback policy on 31 March 2025 The most significant usage of its buyback facility and MTU’s largest buyback in recent memory when the board repurchased 12% of its outstanding shares for £20m This transaction completely removed the activist investor Saba Capital from MTU’s register effectively removing a potential overhang on MTU’s stock this buyback was done on the same terms as those offered to other investors while also being NAV accretive for remaining shareholders (meaning it increased the NAV per share) Saba’s recent attempts to take control of various UK investment trusts, or more recently unitise them (transforming them into open-ended structures) have been disruptive for its targets and may have been an impediment to MTU attracting new shareholders there’s no longer an obvious threat to MTU’s operations or the constancy of its investment approach allowing potential shareholders to invest with confidence that MTU can continue to offer its strategy Readers interested in further information about MTU may wish to read our previous notes listed below You can read them by clicking on the links or by visiting the QuotedData website This note is for information purposes only and is not intended to encourage the reader to deal in the security or securities mentioned within it Marten & Co is not authorised to give advice to retail clients The research does not have regard to the specific investment objectives financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it The analysts who prepared this note are not constrained from dealing ahead of it but and in accordance with our internal code of good conduct will refrain from doing so for the period from which they first obtained the information necessary to prepare the note until one month after the note’s publication they may have an interest in any of the securities 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in any jurisdiction Montanaro UK Smaller Companies Investment companies | Annual overview | 23 June 2023 Riders on the storm After a tough year for quality-growth strategies of all kinds Montanaro UK Smaller Companies Investment companies | Annual overview | 23 June 2023 Riders on the storm After a tough year for investment strategies focused on quality and growth of […] James Carthew spoke to Andrew McHattie from Investment Trust Newsletter If there is a guest speaker you’d particularly like to hear from HOST: President-elect Donald Trump outperformed polling in all seven swing states this election He has kept pollsters on their toes ever since he first ran in 2016 and they still haven't quite accounted for his impact Here to talk about what we learned and we didn't from polls this year is NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro what is your top takeaway from the accuracy that's been the story in each of the last three elections when Trump has been on the ballot The final FiveThirtyEight polling had the vice president at 48 and it looks like she's going to get 48 in the popular vote But Trump was at 47 in the pre-election polling average and he's probably going to be about three points higher than that when the popular vote is all counted we should remember those leads in the pre-election polls are not and that means that those leads could have been three points lower or three points higher.SHAPIRO: Yeah They were all underestimating Trump by about three points So what are pollsters saying happened?MONTANARO: Yeah We can only make some informed guesses at this point after looking at the numbers and chatting with our pollsters it's possible that the polls were pretty dead on but weren't picking up who late deciders were going to be breaking for the exit polls found that people who decided days or a week before the election voted for Trump by double digits It's also possible that the uniqueness of the shape of this electorate was the real issue director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion which conducts polling for us.LEE MIRINGOFF: The electorate shifted in an opposite direction from what it had been over the last eight elections the electorate was 87% white and 13% people of color with the white group going down and people of color increasing election by election until this election.MONTANARO: So in 2020 but Trump's team put a lot of work and effort into getting them to the polls That meant all those likely voter models showing Harris with an advantage before Election Day wound up being flawed They didn't account for that increase because it would defy trends and was unlikely to happen but it did.SHAPIRO: And yet this is the third election in a row where Trump has presented this kind of unique problem for pollsters.MONTANARO: Absolutely have gotten better since 2016 in how they're conducting these polls they're trying to reach people really where they are they've clearly had problems figuring out who's going to actually turn out to vote.Maybe this isn't really surprising given that we're in the middle of a political realignment in America Trump has attracted more blue-collar voters who used to lean Democratic college-educated and wealthier voters have migrated toward Democrats for the most part And those blue-collar voters are a group that has certainly leaned Democratic but those more white-collar voters are the ones that had leaned Republican for decades Those kinds of dynamics create a lot of volatility in society and in polling.SHAPIRO: Is the lesson here just don't trust polls?MONTANARO: No I have been saying for some time that horse race is not the best use of polling especially when things are this close all the time But they did show us that even though Harris had the momentum after she was picked she wasn't able to sustain that lead.So there were some lessons that the polls did teach us were valuable because they showed just how much Harris was trying to swim upstream the vice president - it was very difficult for her to separate herself from Biden Inflation and immigration showed up repeatedly as important to voters and they trusted Trump more to deal with those issues men of color and younger voters at what wound up happening in the end So we should always take what we're seeing in the polls with a grain of salt and really embrace that we're not - they're not meant to be as specific or predictive as people want them to be.SHAPIRO: NPR's Domenico Montanaro Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news You are receiving this pop-up because this is the first time you are visiting our site You are using software which is blocking our advertisements (adblocker) we are relying on revenues from our banners So please disable your adblocker and reload the page to continue using this site.Thanks "I've been working in the apple industry since 2013 I like the project because it is a work in progress and because of the concept behind it to be exact) that meets consumer's tastes under a brand that guarantees consistent quality This new chapter represents a significant development for me but the project's foundations are firmly established Collaborating with Marco Rivoira and Gerhard Dichgans whom I have known for years within the industry The compact and creative team approach has been instrumental in getting the project off the ground and I am eager to collaborate with all those who have contributed to its conceptualization and development," says Giulia Montanaro during her inaugural visit to Fruit Logistica 2025 "The company is currently focused on two key areas of growth," says the manager "These areas include the identification of new potential partners in Europe and beyond and the development of a comprehensive network to support the marketing and communication initiatives of the affiliated partners While these partners will maintain autonomy in sales operations within target countries the network will play a crucial role in facilitating coordinated efforts and enhancing the company's overall marketing and promotional effectiveness The network facilitates the exchange of data and information among partners with a primary focus on managing and coordinating marketing and communication activities These activities will be supported by an increasing budget proportional to the growth observed in production volumes." Giulia Montanaro (General Manager of the Network) and Marco Rivoira (Managing Director Rivoira Group) "The supersweet segment is of particular interest to market trends and Samboa aligns seamlessly with this category given the limited quantities currently available sales are primarily concentrated in Italy and Spain although tests have been conducted in Asia where Samboa's attributes of super sweetness and an impressive shelf life have garnered a highly favorable response." and Isadora — are harvested at three different times to respect their natural shelf life ensuring that consumers receive fruit with consistent taste characteristics the projected volumes are approximately 7,000 tons encompassing 300 active hectares and an additional 200 hectares scheduled for planting in the near future bringing the total in Italy to 500 hectares under the Rivoira and Clementi Groups we also had the privilege of introducing our three new partners from Chile." Managing Director of the Italian Rivoira Group formally introduced the three new Chilean partners that have joined the Samboa project on the occasion of Fruit Logistica: Frusan Each of the Chilean licensees has signed a contract for 150 hectares to be planted in the coming years in the Valle Central with the three apple varieties Luiza Rivoira commented on the significance of this milestone including the introduction of planting material in Chile and the acquisition of the RVP certification we are now poised to initiate the first commercial plantings in 2025 with a phased expansion over the subsequent years the fruits of the experimental trees of the early maturing Luiza variety have begun to intensify in color and they will be ready for harvest in approximately two weeks." The three Chilean companies were represented by Orieta Ramírez Commercial Director of Unifrutti Chile; and Miguel Vial They explained the reasons for participating in this global project Vial highlights the challenges faced by Chile in recent years including "extensive land clearance and diminished quality resulting from warmer conditions in the conventional southern growing regions prompting many growers to migrate further south in pursuit of cooler climates The introduction of these three specialized varieties presents a new opportunity for the company's traditional growing areas in the Central Valley." Founded in 1924 Magna is a family business based in Chile that operates on 1,800 hectares and focuses on the production of apples "We were surprised by the performance of these three varieties in Italy where Rivoira already has several hundred hectares planted "We are currently monitoring the performance of early Luiza in our most heat-affected regions around San Fernando and Curicó and this has reinforced our decision to participate in the project "Frusan was founded in 1979 and operates in Chile (where it owns 8,000 hectares) and Peru (where it owns 1,000 hectares) It is the leading exporter of apples from Chile and generates an annual revenue of USD 300 million." Cristián Matte is confident about the company's global strategy: "We hope that these 'three sisters' will give new life to the apple category which is the one that appeals most to consumers worldwide with a special focus on our Asian customers." Unifrutti Chile was founded in 1980 and is a member of the Unifrutti Group The company operates over 6,000 hectares of land in Chile Unifrutti Chile's total fruit sales volume is 150,000 tons For more information: www.samboa.it FreshPublishers © 2005-2025 FreshPlaza.com The measures include introducing regular tender offers Montanaro European Smaller Companies has announced three strategic initiatives aimed at improving liquidity and reducing the volatility of its discount The trust’s board has proposed a tender offer twice a year allowing shareholders to tender their shares to the trust at a 5% discount to NAV which the board said reflects wider spreads among small caps and the cost associated with the exercise See also: Schroder UK Mid Cap trust announces strategic measures Each tender offer will be limited to a maximum of 5% of the investment trust’s total issued shares “It is hoped that these regular tender opportunities will improve liquidity for all shareholders and not engender the need for investors to take such opportunities that occur with one-off tenders,” the board said The trust expects the first tender offer to take place later this year following the release of the its interim results in the autumn the board has proposed a revision to its share buy back policy in order to pursue a more active approach to discount management If the proposals are approved by shareholders the board will target a single digit discount Montanaro European Smaller Companies currently trades at an 8.2% discount to its net asset value Management fees will also be reduced at the start of April The changes will see Montanaro receive 0.825% per year of the market cap of the investment trust up to £500m Fees on market cap between £500-750m have been revised from 0.75% to 0.70% while Montanaro will continue to receive 0.65% above £750m chair of Montanaro European Smaller Companies Trust said :“The board is proposing an innovative package of measures designed to enhance our investment proposition reducing discount volatility and improving liquidity we are creating value for all our shareholders “The Montanaro European Smaller Companies Trust is in a strong position to benefit from the renewed investor interest in Europe focusing on high quality growth opportunities.” HOST: There are a handful of states that any and everyone involved in politics is watching this election season They're being watched because they were all close calls in 2020 and they're expected to be tight again this year But the people who vote in those states have changed over the years and that's affected American politics as a whole NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro has been diving into the data dive out for a second...DOMENICO MONTANARO BYLINE: (Laughter).MARTÍNEZ: ...So you can tell us what the biggest demographic change you've been seeing.MONTANARO: Well the continued decline of white voters without college degrees and second the rise in Latinos and Asian Americans.MARTÍNEZ: All right so how are those two factors changing things?MONTANARO: Well they were a majority of all voters in the country That's because more people are acquiring college degrees and more Latinos in particular are coming of voting age That's had a huge impact in the Sun Belt states We're seeing faster diversification there than anywhere else Georgia and North Carolina have become winnable for Democrats That trend is just going to continue because and - get this - Gen Z is forecast to be the last generation that is majority white.MARTÍNEZ: OK So white voters without college or university degrees are the core part of President - former President Trump's base So does this data make it more difficult for him to win?MONTANARO: In theory noncollege voters are among the least likely to vote But Trump has used demographic change to fire up these voters and say the country as we know it is changing too quickly and his campaign believes he can turn out even more of them this year That did hold true in 2020 because they wound up making up a higher share of the people who actually voted in all seven swing states than they did in 2016 And that's because Joe Biden cut into Trump's margins with the group he did better with college-educated white voters than Hillary Clinton did Democrat in 2016.MARTÍNEZ: So wouldn't that then present a challenge for Vice President Kamala Harris to try and match what Joe Biden did with those voters?MONTANARO: Yeah but white voters with degrees are also continuing to become a larger share of the eligible voting population And polling has shown Harris doing well with the group especially because they say abortion rights in particular has been such an important issue for them This has been very important as a shift in the blue wall states of Michigan White voters there make up a higher percentage of the population than in the Sun Belt But younger people in those states are more likely now than ever to have a college degree because it's much rarer now than 30 years ago for someone to be able to get a factory job after high school you mentioned Latino and Asian American voters So what are you seeing about how and where they're making a difference?MONTANARO: Yeah Latinos and AAPI voters are most critical in the Southwestern swing states are almost 10% of eligible voters in Nevada now so that could make a huge difference in this election Latinos are considerably up in Georgia and North Carolina Georgia is really in play because Democrats - for Democrats there because Black migration to the Atlanta area has gone way up and Black voters there are now a third of eligible voters These changes are why you've seen Trump's team try to appeal to younger Black and Latino men and why Harris' team has renewed hope that they can fire up these groups and help her get across the finish line.MARTÍNEZ: All right dive back into that data pool.MONTANARO: (Laughter).MARTÍNEZ: We'll fish you out the next time (laughter) Montanaro UK Smaller Companies (MTU) has lifted its quarterly dividends by 50% and cut the fee it pays fund manager Charles Montanaro in an apparent response to pressure from Saba Capital the activist hedge fund that owns 12% of the shares the £174m investment trust will pay out 1.5% of net assets up from the 1% it has distributed since 2018 Well, that was different from the June 27 debate between President Biden and Donald Trump If that June debate was a five-alarm fire for Democrats that eventually forced Biden from the race after Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris Trump’s proponents should probably check the temperature in their own house What happened — and what could it mean going forward The majority of the focus coming into Tuesday was about how Harris would handle her first-ever presidential debate with someone who had been on this stage many times Could she answer questions about her position shifts; parry attacks from Trump someone who tries to be the alpha on these stages; could she answer the attack that she’s light on policy; and could she appear “presidential” but she quickly found her voice and more than acquitted herself well All of those questions were quickly dispatched: Trump’s team ahead of the debate equated the Republican standard-bearer to boxing great Muhammad Ali Trump was cut and bleeding in the middle of the fight Or as a Democratic strategist texted afterward Trump made the unusual move for a presidential candidate to go into the spin room after the debate and talk to reporters That’s not something that’s normally done when someone has a good debate That’s usually reserved for low-polling primary candidates who felt they didn’t get enough time or attention during the debate Coming into the debate, we noted that if Harris is “able to acquit herself passably the spotlight and scrutiny should be heavily on Trump.” That’s because Trump did not have a very good debate against Biden in June, but his serious problems — his lack of substance and repeated lies — were overshadowed by Biden’s disastrous performance, maybe the worst of any presidential candidate in history With a more-than-competent performance from Harris Tuesday conspiracies and often general incoherence was made even more glaring He wandered through conspiracies about, not just the election, but also about who is currently president (Joe Biden), the usual about immigrants who (aren’t actually) coming from “mental institutions and insane asylums” and the newly unusual (and debunked) about immigrants who (are not) “eating the dogs” or “cats.” Trump even got wrong the actual facts of Harris’ misleading charge that Trump predicted “a bloodbath” if the outcome of this election is “not to his liking.” “and it was a term that related to energy because they have destroyed our energy business.” It was the correct term. He did say “bloodbath” back in March but he was talking in the context of Chinese tariffs the auto industry and a transition to electric vehicles — not “our energy business.” It’s the very kind of thing that would have had Democrats nervous about their octogenarian former candidate and Republicans “outraged” on cable news about Biden’s mental state Harris had Trump on the defensive from the get-go on the economy (about his tax cuts and tariffs) when Trump decided to address a Harris attack instead of talking about the issue he ostensibly wants to talk most about For someone who likes to bill himself a straight shooter Trump didn’t answer questions directly and dumped a greatest hits of lies from this campaign He declined to say if he wanted Ukraine to win against Russia wouldn’t answer if he had any regrets about his response to the violence on Jan and he twice refused to say if he would veto a national abortion ban like his vice-presidential running mate said he would he went out of his way to say essentially that Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance doesn’t speak for him — in a clumsy and meandering way that led him to student loans: I didn't discuss it with JD in all fairness They didn't even come close to getting student loans They taunted young people and a lot of other people that had loans So it doesn't matter what she says about going to Congress Never mind that Republicans in Congress would not act to help relieve student loans or that Republican-led states sued to end Biden’s executive action on student-loan forgiveness But Trump was digging the hole even deeper for himself on abortion rights “I did a great service in doing it,” Trump said about the overturning of Roe And the Supreme Court had great courage in doing it And I give tremendous credit to those six justices.” Nearly two-thirds have said they opposed the overturning of Roe Trump was also outside the mainstream of public opinion in talking about the Affordable Care Act. He called it “lousy” and “not very good today” when record numbers of people have a favorable opinion of it “She's gonna do all these wonderful things,” he said She's been there for three-and-a-half years They've had three-and-a-half years to fix the border They've had three-and-a-half years to create jobs and all the things we talked about But a coherent attack line was rare from Trump Tuesday night CNN said it was going to leave the fact checking to the candidates during the June debate between Trump and Biden Moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis interjected with fact checks four times — all were of Trump That was not a reflection of bias; it was because of just how many things Trump said there were blatantly false the dogs and cats conspiracy and the 2020 election but clear tone and maintained control of the debate throughout the evening getting to lots of topics and not letting either candidate run over them particularly with viewership expected to be high claiming the debate was “very unfair” and called it “three on one.” Harris arguably handled Trump better than anyone has at a debate whether it was Hillary Clinton in 2016 or Biden in 2020 — even though most concluded that Clinton and Biden won most Since getting into this shortened campaign Harris has done pretty much everything right staffed up and opened field offices across the swing states fired up the Democratic base and now even out-debated Trump But the political reality is Harris could still lose Arizona and Nevada — are more conservative than the country at large People still are more pessimistic than optimistic on the economy and polls — including the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll out Tuesday — have shown people trust Trump to handle the economy immigration and the war in the Middle East more than Harris and that’s unlikely to change very much even after this debate because of how hyper-polarized this country is An earlier version of this story misspelled ABC moderator Linsey Davis' name MTU: Montanaro UK Smaller Companies announces surprise buyback Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed I'm currently hand-placing 42,000 rhinestones onto an evening gown for my step down as National SnowQueen 2024 and prepare to place the crown on the head of our next snow queen I'll be listening to NPR POLITICS PODCAST the whole time This podcast was recorded at...DEEPA SHIVARAM 2025.STORM: Things may have changed by the time you hear this but I'll probably still be hand-placing all of these rhinestones to make sure that I shine like the snow queen I am here's the show.(SOUNDBITE OF THE BIGTOP ORCHESTRA'S "TEETER BOARD: FOLIES BERGERE (MARCH AND TWO-STEP)")SUSAN DAVIS BYLINE: Forty-two thousand?SHIVARAM: That is an iconic timestamp Also is he driving to North Carolina with this gown Because that is maybe every episode of the POLITICS PODCAST that has...DAVIS: (Laughter).SHIVARAM: ...Ever been created that he's listening to.DAVIS: I also think a dress that has 42,000 rhinestones on it has got to weigh 10 pounds.SHIVARAM: Like at least.DAVIS: That just feels like a heavy heavy garment.SHIVARAM: That's a checked bag if you're flying.Hey there I cover the White House.DAVIS: I'm Susan Davis I cover the Justice Department.SHIVARAM: So there were several controversial cabinet hearings this week on Capitol Hill we're going to chat about two of those - Kash Patel for FBI and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence what is his background?JOHNSON: He spent about 16 years in government service as a public defender He worked on Capitol Hill for former Republican Congressman Devin Nunes But he may be best known for peddling conspiracy theories and making extreme remarks about wanting to dismantle certain elements of federal law enforcement - including the FBI where he's been nominated to run the joint.SHIVARAM: To lead Yeah.SHIVARAM: So not exactly a background in law enforcement he is not someone who has that experience himself.JOHNSON: Well he has worked as a public defender and as a prosecutor But most of the previous eight FBI directors have had really really big management experience running the Justice Department And Patel doesn't have that kind of management experience at all Remember that at - former Attorney General Bill Barr said that Patel would get a big job at the FBI over his dead body.DAVIS: Carrie one of the reasons I think Patel is often described as a controversial figure is because he is someone nominated to run an agency that he has been hugely critical of So I'm curious what he told senators yesterday on the record about what exactly he wants to do with the agency now that he may well have the power to do it.JOHNSON: Yeah He says he wants to fight terrorism from Iran that he wants to prevent any attacks on the homeland and also to kind of stop the flow of illegal drugs and fentanyl He talked a lot about the overdose crisis in the U.S he says he wants to give good cops the leeway to do their jobs The challenge is that Kash Patel has a record on podcasts and books and writings of talking about his efforts to go after people who investigated Donald Trump when Trump was out of the White House and when he was in the White House the last time around Patel had to run away from all of those remarks.SHIVARAM: It's so interesting 'cause I feel like there is this split screen - right what these nominees have said before they sit in the hearing room and then what they're willing to say to get confirmed to serve the president we talked about a little bit this with RFK on Wednesday what was the vibe like among senators who were questioning him?DAVIS: I mean I certainly think that this is going to be a party-line vote in the Senate for his confirmation He is just someone who is seen as a very polarizing political figure And I think he was very sort of - he was that in his hearing I think he had one kind of tense exchange with Amy Klobuchar in which she said something to the effect of Senator.SHIVARAM: (Laughter).DAVIS: And she just went this is not someone who is going before the Senate with a charm offensive right?SHIVARAM: Yeah.DAVIS: But I also think But the sense I got from Republican senators on this committee is that they support him a Republican from North Carolina who's up for reelection in 2026 And that sort of tells me if the Thom Tillises of the world are OK with Kash Patel then most of the rest of the senators probably are he got a warm embrace from Tillis and many other Republican senators Patel actually said yesterday that he believes the large majority of FBI agents are courageous and apolitical figures he's talked about wanting to basically blow up the FBI headquarters and reinstitute it as a museum for the deep state.You know there's already some evidence that some senior officials career officials at the FBI are being asked to leave their jobs Patel denied any knowledge of that kind of planning yesterday But he also didn't state explicitly that he would not prosecute people like James Comey and Chris Wray - his predecessors at the FBI - or people like Merrick Garland So he left a lot of room for himself to maneuver if he wins confirmation.SHIVARAM: Yeah based on everything you've seen.DAVIS: Yeah the thing you have to understand about Patel in this orbit of nominees is he is just "Russia hoax," in the words of the president He has been a fighter for Donald Trump from the beginning he just has a lot of conservative grassroots support And what you're hearing politically within the party is we're coming for you.So I don't think the Thom Tillises of the world especially those senators up for reelection in two years have a lot of political room to vote against someone who is He has a resume that fits the role and incredibly politically popular with the base I don't see what a no-vote gets any Republican senator in this moment.JOHNSON: I defer to Sue on the politics But I just have to say that with regard to the so-called Russia hoax Special Counsel Robert Mueller found that Russia did try to affect the election in the balance of Donald Trump and that many people pleaded guilty to crimes in connection with that election interference effort and other associated activities in that era while Donald Trump continues to reject the findings of Bob Mueller and his team the DOJ watchdog found that investigation was largely legitimate.DAVIS: And I don't think we should be coy about Patel here in any way Donald Trump has said he wants a loyalist at the FBI and Kash Patel has made very clear he's going to be a loyalist at the FBI I don't think there's - I don't think any credulous person can say that he's going to be a fully independent operator I don't think we precisely know yet.SHIVARAM: All right I want to switch gears and talk about Tulsi Gabbard a shakier candidate than Kash Patel.DAVIS: She has a trickier path ahead but I would not say that it's a foregone conclusion that she doesn't get confirmed I just think it's more complex for a couple of reasons The first I'd say is that in contrast to someone like Patel who has a lot of credibility within the party Tulsi Gabbard was a Democrat until not too long ago She ran for president in the Democratic primary in 2020 and then quickly became disillusioned with her party She became an independent.Now I believe she's a registered Republican and she endorsed Trump in the 2024 presidential election But her lifetime legacy of political connections doesn't run as deep within the Republican Party But I don't think she carries with her that same kind of grassroots support who we spoke about on the podcast this week Kennedy also has sort of cross-party cultural appeal.He's got a little bit of - or a lot of bit of celebrity name ID And he's also got a ton of money behind him is out there threatening to primary anybody who votes against him to fund campaigns against his opponents So I don't think Gabbard either has that deep-pocketed donor power coming from the top down or the grassroots confirm her power coming from the bottom up.The thing I don't have a sense of is how hard the president wants to fight for her to be his nominee I think Donald Trump would go to the mat for Kash Patel I don't get the sense that - it's certainly not the same vibe on Capitol Hill that the Trump universe is going to fight as hard for her a former chairman of that committee and a former senator from North Carolina saying she was capable of doing the job.Tom Cotton said he poured over her background checks and that she's "clean as a whistle." So there is clearly an element of the party that is ready and willing to support her And this is one area of the government in which the president thinks is in need of disruption.JOHNSON: You know what really struck me yesterday was how many senators asked Gabbard about Edward Snowden...DAVIS: Yeah.JOHNSON: ...As somebody who spent many months on the DOJ investigation of Edward Snowden Gabbard was unwilling to say that he was a traitor to the United States.DAVIS: And she was given multiple opportunities by Republicans on the committee were trying to get her...SHIVARAM: Who want that answer.DAVIS: ...To the right answer.SHIVARAM: Yeah Langford has also publicly committed to supporting her nomination She was also asked a lot about her 2017 visit as a congresswoman to visit then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad...SHIVARAM: Yeah.DAVIS: ...Kind of as an independent operator That's always been a weird blip in her resume she's been a critic of surveillance programs which is what people in the intelligence community will tell you is one of their most powerful tools to conduct surveillance overseas Critics say it opens the back door to allow people to surveil U.S which questions the constitutionality of it.She's been very sympathetic to those arguments in the past She has since said since getting this nomination that she is a stronger supporter of those laws Patel has the background experience to do the job she has no significant experience within the intelligence network She's never had a precise job within the intelligence community although she has served in the military and obviously served in Congress So she's a little bit more of a shrub...SHIVARAM: Like a squirmy pick.DAVIS: Yeah.SHIVARAM: Like one of the senators to watch is someone like Todd Young I can't read too much into their questioning but he's not someone that I would bank as a yes vote just yet and he's the kind of Republican you really need to be on board for her to be confirmed.SHIVARAM: Carrie and we'll be back in a moment.And we're back And we're now joined by Domenico Montanaro so President Trump took office just under two weeks ago you came to the studio yesterday when we taped the pod with pages of essentially a timeline of what has happened in the last How many pages was that?MONTANARO: Printed out It might be a little longer now to be...SHIVARAM: Oh It's one of the techniques I have in life with things I can't control...SHIVARAM: (Laughter).MONTANARO: ...That I have to somewhat pay attention to I document.DAVIS: You journal.SHIVARAM: You journal It's sort of a dispassionate recounting of the events.SHIVARAM: Well I don't want you to have to read the whole thing front to back it's not going to happen.SHIVARAM: Top of mind - yeah...MONTANARO: (Laughter).SHIVARAM: ...We need what are some of the top-line things that you think have really really stood out to you - the ones that are maybe was that press conference yesterday from President Trump talking about the site of the crash most people - and we said this yesterday - you go out there and say Don't want to give people the wrong impression Trump said he would - he had lots of strong opinions and he was going to state them.SHIVARAM: Yeah.MONTANARO: And he did we can get into some of that and is - how long he's going to blame diversity.SHIVARAM: Right.MONTANARO: But that's what he's tried to do the OMB memo obviously was the thing that started us off this week And really kind of the confusion around that really led to what was the first misstep in the Trump communications strategy and policymaking 'cause going bold is not always the best step in trying to run a government efficiently - especially when the government does do so many things.SHIVARAM: Many of these things are things that Trump promised in his campaign And to Domenico's point that he's had to start writing down everything that's happened I really think people need to keep in mind that this is the strategy I think Trump coming into office the second time better prepared better staffed and with a clear-eyed agenda of what he wants to do - none of this is by accident And I think when you talk to people on the Hill and people close to the campaign a full-velocity year to do as much as you possibly can knowing that there could potentially be a check on his power in the 2026 midterms.SHIVARAM: Yeah.DAVIS: And there's the sense that you got to leave it all on the field this year.SHIVARAM: I wonder what are some of the things that you think have happened just in the last week that haven't really gotten much attention but are very significant?MONTANARO: Yeah that kind of symbolize how Trump is running the federal government things like taking the pictures off the walls at USAID when the workers go in and the idea that they were telling federal workers that if they they should respond in an email with a subject line that says and then they'll get paid through September 30.Or at least they could telework till September 30 This is really sort of them going in like bulls in a china shop especially to remake the federal government and say These are the policies we want to implement I think one of the biggest things from the week in terms of potential impact was that initial memo from the Office of Management and Budget saying we're going to do this freeze of all grant and loan programs across the federal government And then the White House press secretary said they rescinded the memo but not the action I don't exactly know how that's possible.And then having a federal judge basically accuse the White House of trying to get around a federal freeze order on it that is the kind of just chaos that I think is just going to be definitive of this administration there is a part of this that recognizes that a lot of what Trump is going to do is going to be challenged in the courts.SHIVARAM: Yeah.DAVIS: And I think that's by design that they do actually want to take a lot of actions that they know will be fought out in the courts And I think that is part of the broader goal of the Trump administration is to centralize more power within the Oval Office.SHIVARAM: Right It doesn't matter if the courts challenge us if that is kind of what carries over to the folks who support President Trump And I think that that gets to the point of what Trump's number one priority is which is culture and reshaping the culture of the country Despite the fact that he's saying that the left was trying to socially engineer the country - well he's trying to socially engineer the country and being able to take out some of the things that he finds to be objective and to really look at what we haven't talked about...SHIVARAM: Right.MONTANARO: ...Here is him ramping mass deportations and getting people out of the country and really smartly who would be against somebody who did something so horrible it's not going to be that clean-cut for the entirety of the four years of Trump.And he said he wants the largest mass deportation in the history of the United States And I think that one story that he continues to tell is really kind of showing his hand and the game when he has said now twice in the past he thinks that immigration was always the No 1 issue for him.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I made it my number one issue They all said inflation was the number one issue I think people coming into our country from prisons and from mental institutions is a bigger issue for the people that I know how many times can you say that an apple has doubled in cost?MONTANARO: I think that that shows he knows that as a president you don't have that much control over things like prices despite the rhetoric of the campaign and the fact that those - all of those crossover voters who voted for him was about this nostalgia for a Trump economy.SHIVARAM: Right And while all of that is happening and all of these policies that he's implementing executive orders that he's implementing are unfolding he's appearing in the White House press room this week and creating an entirely new news cycle which is the plane crash that happened at the Potomac River in D.C that that might have been a result of DEI hiring practices of putting people in the government who are from diverse backgrounds.To be clear authorities are still investigating how that crash happened and Trump made those claims without citing any kind of evidence this is kind of a throughline that I think you can expect and we can expect that Trump keeps using for the next four years.DAVIS: Look I think the Republican Party right now is riding a high out of this election in which they believe the rejection of DEI - which I think is just sort of shorthand for cultural politics of the left - helped them win this election And I think that the president blaming a plane crash on DEI without evidence - Trump has long been willing to sort of press on these cultural nerves to suggest that racial or gender politics played a role when there's no evidence that it did.I do think that there is a cultural pendulum swing back against a lot of that cultural progressivism that has occurred in the past few years But I also think it comes with an inherent risk most Americans actually say they do support some element of racial equity and racial equity programs as they are within the Republican Party and the Trump administration And pushing too hard on this stuff often has a revulsion especially from independent and swing voters in this country.SHIVARAM: Yeah All right - we're going to take one more break and we will be back with Can't Let It Go.And we're back and it's time for everyone's favorite Friday segment - Can't Let It Go That's the part of the show where we talk about the things from the week we can't stop thinking about My Can't Let It Go is something that my friend actually told me about earlier this week But my thing that I can't let go of is that Naomi Girma biggest deal in payment that a women's soccer player has ever gotten.DAVIS: Ooh.SHIVARAM: One point one million dollars that's really a low number as far as athletes go we are still at a point where that is a really mourning that but also really celebrating that but it is just kind of a really big deal for women's soccer overall.DAVIS: That is both wonderful and kind of horrifying...SHIVARAM: Yeah.DAVIS: ...When you think about it.(LAUGHTER)DAVIS: Like Tom Brady lights his fires with million-dollar bills I just think the disparity in sports...SHIVARAM: Oh it's nuts.DAVIS: ...Which is for many reasons - I'm not saying it's not - but to hear highest figure ever We are still at a point where we look at that but also kind of like that weird slanted smiley face emoji.MONTANARO: I'd like to see that million-dollar bill Sue.(LAUGHTER)MONTANARO: The - do they have Brady's face on it yeah.(LAUGHTER)MONTANARO: Which hairstyle?SHIVARAM: (Laughter).MONTANARO: You know I - but I do think what's interesting about this is professional league team to the Premier League...SHIVARAM: Yeah.MONTANARO: ...Literally is what it's called - being able to do that - that's not something you usually see where the price is ramped up to bring in somebody at the twilight of their career - like Lionel Messi Miami team is paying him a lot of money as a sort of showcase person to bring fans in So the fact that this is now happening in the other direction I think is a sign that the American soccer leagues are actually starting to do fairly well I feel like everyone played soccer as a kid But I do feel like the watching of professional soccer has just blown up in ways that are very fun.DAVIS: Can I tell you - I have increasingly enjoyed watching soccer games and I like it because the games are shorter.SHIVARAM: (Laughter).DAVIS: You can do more in a day if you're going to watch a soccer game if you just need a little sport but you don't want it to take up your whole night soccer is the way to go.SHIVARAM: (Laughter) A little sprinkle of athleticism what can you not let go of this week?DAVIS: I also have a sports-related CLIG.SHIVARAM: Oh the Philadelphia Eagles...SHIVARAM: (Laughter).DAVIS: ...Are going to the Super Bowl.SHIVARAM: Correct.MONTANARO: The Eagles.DAVIS: The Eagles But what I can't let go of is a couple of weeks ago had a really big faux pas right before a big Eagles game.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)CHERELLE PARKER: Well I don't know what she was spelling there.DAVIS: (Laughter) Before the Eagles went on to beat the Rams and then they went on to beat the Commanders But what has been a faux pas has kind of been embraced...SHIVARAM: (Laughter).DAVIS: ...By the city of Philadelphia especially because they went on to win...MONTANARO: Of course.DAVIS: ...The next two games.MONTANARO: Of course.DAVIS: So what I can't let go is that I - like my brother sent me a sweatshirt that says Eagles but it's spelled E-L-G-S-E-S.SHIVARAM: That's amazing.DAVIS: And I was talking to a friend this morning that's how we spell it now.SHIVARAM: I was going to say - I was like Philadelphia will make that happen.DAVIS: And I think it kind of worked out for her because politicians screwing up sports stuff can go real wrong So E-L-G-S-E-S.MONTANARO: Sue has been very nice to me about my Mets fandom and the fact that I'm a New York fan And we all know that New York fans and Philly fans are sort of oil and water So I'll just - because you've been so nice to me I will just let go what my thoughts would probably have been otherwise.(LAUGHTER)DAVIS: I appreciate that what about you?MONTANARO: I cannot let go of drug-addicted rats.DAVIS: What?MONTANARO: Yeah Isn't that great?SHIVARAM: I don't even know how to respond to that.MONTANARO: The - since the start of the Trump administration there have been a lot of things that have happened where officials said that there are rats that are ruining evidence in their evidence lockers we got 400,000 pounds of marijuana in storage that the rats are the only ones enjoying.So much evidence is kept and stored that is no longer needed and that has no impact on the resolution of that charge You can't store large quantities of drugs without expecting some of these things to happen my God.DAVIS: Rats always come out on top.SHIVARAM: (Laughter).MONTANARO: They've been around for millions of years like...SHIVARAM: (Laughter).DAVIS: They're riding the subway in New York They're tough to deal with (laughter).SHIVARAM: That doesn't sound fun that's an interesting concept.DAVIS: Living their best lives.MONTANARO: One way to get through the days.SHIVARAM: Yeah.(LAUGHTER)SHIVARAM: All right - that's it for today's episode Our producers are Bria Suggs and Kelli Wessinger I cover politics.MONTANARO: And I'm Domenico Montanaro senior political editor and correspondent.SHIVARAM: And thank you for listening to the NPR POLITICS PODCAST.(SOUNDBITE OF THE BIGTOP ORCHESTRA'S "TEETER BOARD: FOLIES BERGERE (MARCH AND TWO-STEP)") Montanaro European Smaller Companies (MTE) has fallen awry of recent market trends notes that the market is currently favouring low-quality low-value companies (such as smaller southern-European banks) This may be due either to improving sentiment around Europe’s economy (having seemingly dodged a recession) or the initial effect of falling interest rates which are typically positive for riskier assets like equities Given that the sort of quality companies in which MTE invests have also de-rated a double-digit discount on MTE is arguably a good way to gain exposure to the premium end of the European small-cap market on attractive valuations More information is available from the manager’s website www.montanaro.co.uk MTE aims to achieve capital growth by investing principally in smaller quoted Continental European companies (those within the European Union but is not restricted from investing in smaller companies quoted on other European stock exchanges The benchmark index is the MSCI Europe ex UK Small Cap Index (in sterling terms) but Montanaro Asset Management Limited (MAML) took on the management of the trust in September 2006 and the European small-cap investment approach dates from then MAML was established in 1991 and is chaired and 95% owned by Charles Montanaro and family. Fund manager Mark Rogers owns 5%. However, the wider team has options over about half of the equity the lead manager on MTE is George Cooke (who is also head of investments at MAML) and Stefan Fischerfeier acts as George’s back-up and George are all members of the investment committee which also includes Alex Magni (see page 22 for more detail on the team) MAML also owns 5% of the outstanding shares of MTE MAML believes that it has the largest and most experienced team in Europe They are supported by what MAML believes is the largest and most experienced team in Europe specialising in researching and investing in quoted small- and mid-cap companies The team is multi-lingual and multi-national All but two of the fund managers also have research responsibilities Montanaro’s managers believe that the company is best served by operating with a maximum of 40 staff members as to preserve the advantages of a boutique outfit With 38 current staff members (17 of whom are analysts and fund managers) Montanaro is now effectively maturing as a boutique and as such will continue to devote its resources towards its current strategies In addition to MTE, the team manages a range of funds focused on UK and European equities, the Montanaro Better World Fund (an open-ended fund investing in small- and mid-cap companies supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals) MAML has about £3.3bn of assets under management stated she is still “wide open” to a September interest rate cut and downplayed concerns about “sticky” inflation An unexpected French election has rattled European markets French President Emmanuel Macron shocked markets by announcing a snap parliamentary election This sudden announcement followed his centrist party being soundly defeated by the far-right Rassemblement National in the recent European Parliament election This unexpected news unsettled European markets (as is illustrated in Figure 1) with the French market retreating sharply; the French market index CAC 40 dropped 6% in the week following the announcement the second round of voting saw an upsurge in support for the left and it was ultimately a coalition of left-wing parties that formed the majority in France’s new parliament the French parliament is currently at a political standstill under a caretaker government and we will need to until President Macron decides to name a new Prime Minister This result is likely a double-edged sword for investors Whilst a fractured parliament will prevent the passage of radical policies it also introduces significant uncertainty regarding policy direction French markets have remained relatively stagnant since the election results with investors likely waiting for greater clarity The market’s recent aversion to quality-growth stocks has created an opportunity Inspection of Figure 2 shows a sharp widening of the one-year relative figure We think that this could signal a potential buying opportunity for MTE Information ratio calculated in respect to the MSCI Europe ex UK Small Cap Index George also adopts an approach of buying stocks that he likes when they are out of favour He typically prefers to assess a company’s value over a five-year period George is happy to hold companies through periods of short-term weakness when this has been driven by non-fundamental issues such as macroeconomic trends or political volatility (as we are likely seeing now) on the expectation that the fundamentals of a company will assert themselves over the longer term MAML avoids trying to time macroeconomic shifts market leaders with high and sustainable returns This could be summed up as investing in high-quality businesses at sensible prices MAML believes that it is easier to add value through stock selection for a small-cap portfolio especially given the relative paucity of research available on these companies MAML observes that some large companies are covered by 50 or more brokers while many European smaller companies have little or no coverage Firm evidence for the success of this approach is provided in Figure 21 on page 18 MAML has always generated its own investment ideas rather than relying on external analysts MTE is a true stock-picking portfolio; index-weightings play no part in forming its portfolio construction. MAML has always generated its own investment ideas rather than relying on external analysts. There are many good reasons for this, but it is also fortunate as the availability and quality of external analysis – which MAML believes has been on a declining trend for some time – was exacerbated by MiFID II which is sharpened by the strength and depth of its research team The depth and experience of MAML’s team gives the firm a competitive edge MAML is an entrepreneurial boutique with a flat structure that allows for quick decision-making and avoids the politics that bog down more bureaucratic MAML does not encourage the development of ‘star’ fund managers including the granting of staff options over MAML equity MAML’s ‘back office’ functions are carried out in-house rather than being outsourced (as they are in many smaller investment management boutiques) Research responsibilities are distributed amongst the team on a sector Emphasis is placed on being well-prepared for meetings which is possible as the research team is well-resourced Site visits are encouraged (another perk of having a large team is that it is not desk-bound) All stock ideas are reviewed and approved by an investment committee The analysts then build a financial model and conduct a proprietary checklist for each stock They also check whether a stock meets MAML’s environmental social and governance (ESG) criteria (see below) Then the idea is put before MAML’s investment committee who challenge assumptions and ask for more information if they feel this is warranted Stocks that pass these quality thresholds may then go on to an approved list of approximately 250 companies No fund manager can buy a company that is not on the approved list Value is assessed on a range of measures but only after the quality evaluation is complete MAML will hold no more than 10% of the voting rights in any company (across all funds managed by MAML); and of the value of its total assets at the time of investment will be invested in other investment trusts or investment companies admitted to the Official List of the UK Listing Authority MTE has no holdings in other investment trusts Position sizes determined by strength of conviction ESG principles are at the heart of MAML’s stock selection decisions Ed Heaven chairs an internal sustainability committee of seven which meets quarterly and oversees MAML’s efforts in this area The team includes two dedicated ESG and impact specialists MAML expects the companies that it invests in to improve their ESG awareness and it monitors their progress Some sectors are excluded from portfolios on ESG or ethical grounds MAML portfolios will not contain tobacco companies; companies manufacturing weapons facilitating gambling or manufacturing alcohol; companies engaged in oil- coal- and gas-related E&P; companies involved with pornography; companies making high-interest-rate loans; or companies engaged in animal testing unless it is required by law Corporate governance checks include an assessment of a company’s remuneration policy MAML has won several ESG & Impact awards and has most recently been awarded the “Best Small & MidCap Sustainable Investment Boutique” award by Ethical Finance Stocks exit the portfolio for a variety of reasons – for example stocks may leave the portfolio if the analysts identify unfavourable changes in the fundamentals of the business or an unfavourable management change Stocks will also be sold if they no longer pass MAML’s quality threshold or if a new opportunity comes along that offers better prospects which should feed through to improving dividend growth in due course as can be seen by the decrease in the net debt/equity ratio Reflecting the multi-year investment thesis MTE follows there has been little change to the constituents of MTE’s top 10 since we last published Esker and Reply are not new holdings for the trust and their moves up into MTE’s top 10 reflects the growth in their share prices over the period We note that Brembo and Melexis are still part of MTE’s portfolio Esker (esker.com) is a French software developer specialising in document automation and order management solutions Rather than being proactively increased by George Esker entered MTE’s top 10 due to strong share-price performance over the last 10 months Esker was viewed as a COVID-19 winner (i.e those that benefitted from the changes in lifestyle and working practices during the pandemic) but gave some of this back as economies re-opened George believes that the fundamentals of his investment thesis remain intact with Esker continuing to be supported by the tailwinds of digitisation Esker’s recent financial results showed solid growth during in its 2023 financial year (ending December 31) despite management’s acknowledgment of a challenging economic environment driven primarily by the continued success of Esker’s cloud automation solutions (software which helps to remotely automate computational tasks) Esker’s profitability was impacted by currency effects and higher compensation costs due to staff growth and sales commissions reporting its best Q1 in history with a 12% year-over-year increase in sales reaching €47.7m for the first three months This revenue growth was driven by its software-as-a-service arm which saw recurring subscription-based revenues grow by 83% year-over-year These results have contributed to a 29% year-to-date increase in Esker’s share price although it was impacted by France’s snap election call resulting in a 9% decline in the days following the announcement Reply (www.reply.com) is an Italian company that provides consulting and digital services to both the public and private sectors Reply advises its customers on a wide variety of issues ranging from complex digital solutions like quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to more conventional issues such as supply chain management and compliance with all major global regions reporting positive growth Management notes that high demand for expertise in emerging technologies with the technologies business unit contributing 61% of revenue Reply has invested heavily in AI capabilities over the past decade positioning itself advantageously in the sector highlighting the accelerating adoption of AI as a key driver of growth and is continuing to invest accordingly There have been several new additions to the portfolio over the last 12 months whose position sizes are too small to be captured by Figure 6 These purchases were funded by sales of Novozymes which merged with Novozymes in January 2024 and sold his shares in Novozymes that he receives as part of the merger Marel was sold due to tis deteriorating fundamentals SimCorp was sold as part of its acquisition by Deutsche Boerse in September 2023 while VZ and Brunello Cucinelli were trimmed on strength Interpump Group (www.interpump.co.uk) is an Italian manufacturer of very high-pressure water pumps and hydraulics After a challenging 12 months for the company as it currently trades at a P/E ratio of 17x He believes that the sell-off was due to the cyclicality in the European market (i.e the economic climate was not conducive to Interpump’s demand) and that the company has a strong long-term outlook He expects the share price to recover once concerns about near-term economic slowdowns dissipate Interpump’s most recent full-year results (for the year ending 31 December) have already alleviated some market concerns about the cyclicality of its earnings Interpump reported full-year revenues of €2,240m This growth was driven by a 6% increase in hydraulic sales and a 12.9% increase in water-jetting sales Management attribute this growth to its diversified business model and global presence noting growth across most regions globally They also credit this growth to structural drivers supporting the company such as the ongoing trend toward automation and efficiency in industrial processes as well as the company’s economic moats (business practices which naturally prevent new competitors) which involve operating in niche markets whose complexity inherently reduces competition Borregaard (www.borregaard.com) is a Norwegian company that operates one of the world’s most advanced and sustainable biorefineries producing chemicals from renewable raw materials such as timber Thanks to the tailwinds supporting the demand for sustainable such as stricter environmental regulations and preference for lower carbon-footprint production Borregaard was able to report its strongest ever set of full year results it reported an all-time high EBITDA of NOK1.8m while also reporting all-time high revenues of NOK7.1m This growth was attributed to not only the higher prices Borregaard was able to charge across its business segments but also the diversified market strategy it uses (producing multiple products to satisfy a range of different clients) helping to mitigate slowdowns in certain end-markets Schott Pharma (www.schott-pharma.com) is a German company specialising in drug containment solutions and delivery systems for injectable drugs. MTE participated in Schott Pharma’s IPO when the company went public in September 2023 Schott Pharma began its life as a listed company on a strong footing with sales of its drug delivery products reporting 29% growth (adjusted for currency impact) in their most recent interim results revenue grew 3.9% year-over-year to €466.5 million due to the international nature of its markets currency effects led to a decrease in profitability with its EBITDA margin falling from 29.4% to 25.1% year-over-year Schott Pharma’s management remains confident in the fundamental strength of the business and expects 9-11% organic revenue growth for the full year (i.e not using purchases of other companies to grow) with an EBITDA margin approximately at the previous year’s level of 26.6% BioGaia (www.biogaia.com) is a Swedish biotechnology company that develops markets and sells a range of probiotic products 2023 was an exceptionally strong year for BioGaia which reported a 17% increase in sales and a 23% increase in its operating margin the company reported approximately 35% growth in both the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions which more than offset a 4% decline in its European markets Bouvet’s strong positioning led to impressive performance in its 2023 financial year, a trend that continued into the first quarter of 2024. In 2023, Bouvet’s operating revenue increased by 14.3% to NOK 3,525.8m. Operating profits rose by 1.3% to NOK407m, with an EBIT margin of 11.5% Similar results were observed in the first quarter of 2024 Bouvet attributes its growth to strong demand for a wide range of solutions Management highlighted particularly strong demand from the oil and gas A notable challenge for the company in 2023 was the impact of wage inflation and increased costs it was able to offset these through price increases (a benefit of a loyal customer base who are more willing to pay higher prices) and by improving operational efficiency Note: MTE’s benchmark is the MSCI European Smaller Companies Index ex-UK MTE has generated a NAV total return that surpasses both its benchmark (MSCI European Smaller Companies Index ex-UK) and its open and closed-ended peers over the long term Much of MTE’s outperformance can be attributed to its strong performance during the COVID-19 period MTE began to lose its lead at the start of 2022 due to rising global inflation and interest rate expectations which led to a sell-off in the highly valued growth companies (whereby they command a premium share price compared to other European small caps) typically comprising MTE’s portfolio MTE remains the best performing European small cap trust over the long term However, as mentioned on page 7, MTE has begun to lag behind its index and peers over the past 12 months. George attributes this to a sharp rally in lower-quality companies, citing some of Europe’s small-cap banks as examples. Such companies are excluded from MTE’s portfolio through George’s investment process (which we described in detail in our previous note) The high cyclicality and historically low shareholder returns of these banks fail to meet George’s basic investment criteria the combination of an improving outlook for Europe’s economy and higher earnings from income portfolios (due to higher interest rates allowing banks to generate more returns from their own capital and charge higher rates on their loans) has increased investor demand in the near term an Italian bank and the 8th-largest constituent in MTE’s benchmark is up 50% year-to-date but only 14% over the last 10 years George remains optimistic in this environment believing that the rally reflects short-term macroeconomic factors rather than improving business practices he has highlighted three companies that have been the largest contributors to MTE’s performance over the first half of 2024 AAK is a Swedish producer of sustainable plant-based oils and fats used in various products AAK’s shares traded sideways in a range between SEK150 and SEK 200 until 2023 increasing by approximately 50% over the subsequent 12 months and returning 34% in 2024 in sterling terms This sudden breakout was not driven by unusually strong results as AAK has maintained consistent profit margins for the last five years and achieved its highest revenue growth in 2021 and 2022 George believes the recent rise in the price of cocoa brought AAK to the attention of many investors as its products can replace cocoa fats at a lower cost MTE’s primary aim is to deliver capital growth to its shareholders and its dividend is thus a by-product of its investment process with MTE having a modest yield of 0.8% as at 23 July 2024 thanks to the growth in dividends paid by its invested companies; a hallmark of a high-quality business MTE’s most recent divided was fully covered by its revenues also The revenue reserve stood at £4.5m at the end of March 2024 (March 2023 £3.7m) NB Figures prior to 2022 have been adjusted to reflect a 10×1 subdivision of MTE’s shares Over the 12 months to the end of July 2024 MTE’s shares traded within a range of a 16.5% discount to a 9.3% discount and an average discount of 13.5% the shares were trading at a discount of 13.0% MTE has powers to issue and buyback shares, which it renews regularly at the AGM Shares repurchased can be held in treasury and may be reissued The board has said that these would only be reissued at a higher absolute price than the weighted average purchase price of the shares in treasury and at a premium to NAV at the time of reissue or at a discount provided this discount was lower than the weighted average discount at the time the shares were repurchased The net effect of this should be that purchasing the shares and reissuing them again is profitable for ongoing shareholders The board has stated that it will consider a buyback of shares where the discount of the share price to the NAV per share is greater than 10% for a sustained period and is significantly wider than the average for similar trusts It will take into consideration the effect of the buyback on the liquidity of the company’s shares The board has yet to buy back shares since MTE began to trade on a discount the board encourages the manager to market the company to new investors The board has set a maximum limit on borrowing of 30% of shareholders’ funds at the time of borrowing regularly reviews the company’s gearing strategy and approves the arrangement of any gearing facility The board believes that the ability to use gearing offers a strong competitive advantage over alternative open-ended investment funds it strongly encourages the active use of gearing by the manager marginally lower than the 2.6% at the time of our prior publication He graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2005 with an undergraduate degree in Management Studies He then spent a further year of study there at the end of which he was awarded a Masters (with Distinction) in Corporate Strategy & Governance he joined the graduate scheme at Aon Benfield (formerly Aon Re) George settled as an analyst within the Resolutions department where he specialised in assisting with the capital and runoff issues of insurance and reinsurance companies all of whom are independent of the manager and who do not sit together on other boards Each director offers himself or herself up for re-election at each AGM Richard was appointed to the board in 2015 and became chairman in 2018 He has over 30 years’ experience as a fund manager and is currently an investment director at Jupiter Fund Management Plc He also has extensive experience of investment trusts Richard is also chairman of the nominations committee Readers interested in further information about MTE may wish to read our other notes Click the links in the table or visit the QuotedData website The analysts who prepared this note are not constrained from dealing ahead of it Investment Performance Information: Please remember that past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future and that the value of shares and the income from them can go down as well as up Exchange rates may also cause the value of underlying overseas investments to go down as well as up Marten & Co may write on companies that use gearing in a number of forms that can increase volatility and Primed for ignition With its dedication to high-quality Given that its investment approach targets what its manager Montanaro European Smaller Companies (MTE) may have fallen awry of recent […] Third quarter of 2023 Investment Companies | Quarterly roundup | October 2023 Kindly sponsored by abrdn ‘Uncomfortable’ Following a fast start to the first half of the year October 2023 Monthly roundup  |  Investment companies Kindly sponsored by abrdn  Winners and losers in September 2023 September was defined by the ongoing US bond selloff Montanaro European Smaller Companies Investment companies | Annual overview | 01 August 2023 No Continental Drift Despite the headwinds it has faced – chief among them higher interest rates – […] Montanaro European Smaller Companies Investment companies | Annual overview | 01 August 2023 No Continental Drift Despite the headwinds it has faced – among them higher interest rates – Montanaro […] Economic and Political Monthly Roundup Investment companies | Monthly | December 2022 A collation of recent insights on markets and economies taken from the comments made by chairs and investment […] Investment Companies Monthly Roundup Kindly sponsored by Baillie Gifford and abrdn November 2022 Monthly  |  Investment companies   Winners and losers in October 2022 Many equity markets recovered some of […] Vice President Harris sat for her first interview Thursday night since entering the presidential race five weeks ago conducted by CNN’s Dana Bash on the campaign trail in Georgia was seen as an important step in what’s been a highly successful – and highly scripted – campaign to this point calm and didn’t get rattled when pushed about changes to her positions on certain issues which is important for a presidential candidate who people are still getting to know She also continued to show a degree of relatability she talked about making pancakes and cooking bacon for her nieces when President Biden called to inform her of his decision to drop out of the race Debates are often about optics and not substance which the first debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump showed when Bash pushed Harris on some position changes Harris showed she’s mostly able to parry attacks adequately Harris and her team will probably want to clean up her response as to why she changed her position on fracking “My values have not changed,” likely won’t suffice but people expect to hear why in a believable way Harris did give a plausible reason for switching from being against fracking to in favor of it and we can increase a clean energy economy without banning fracking,” she said about what is a politically potent issue in Pennsylvania maybe the most closely watched swing state She noted that she cast the tie-breaking vote in Congress for expanding fracking leases But it took her a while to make that point and it might not be what most people see in clips of the interview in the coming days Instead, when Harris was first asked about the change in this interview, she initially said her position hadn’t changed from 2020. That’s because in the 2020 vice-presidential debate, Harris did say twice that “Joe Biden will not end fracking when she was running for president herself she said during a CNN town hall focused on climate change: “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking and starting with what we can do on Day 1 around public lands.” she abandoned that position and is now pledging to remain in favor of it From saying she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet to committing to stronger fracking and immigration policies than she had in 2019 Harris is again showing she’s aiming her campaign squarely at the middle A larger point on her move to the center on fracking and immigration in particular is that these shifts track with something she’s been consistent on — and something that brought her criticism in 2019: She believes most in solving problems “I believe it is important to build consensus and it is important to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems,” Harris told Bash “[I]s my government solving problems?” Harris told NPR’s Scott Detrow in 2019 of what she sees as most important in public service And it's the way I've always judged myself are we addressing people's real-life problems and solving them and they were already wary of Harris’ record as California’s attorney general and San Francisco district attorney Conservatives in this election have been going after Harris for what they see as inauthenticity but the thing that Harris has always shown is that she’s pragmatic She’s been much clearer on where she stands in this campaign than she was in 2019 – and that’s aimed directly at the middle That includes while on the campaign trail in Georgia Thursday saying that one of her top priorities will be helping small businesses and promising to roll out a tax credit proposal for new small businesses next week The bottom line is: Harris is a big D Democrat She might want to move the country to the left of where Donald Trump wants to take it like former President Barack Obama before her she would probably be as liberal as Congress and her coalition will allow her to be this line of attack that her stances keep changing might stick more to Harris if she wasn’t running against Trump Harris said she would look for ways to “strengthen” the middle class and start trying to implement her “Opportunity Economy” plan she laid out last week to bring prices down and try to make homes more affordable She has noted other proposals in the course of this truncated campaign like wanting to try to pass the John Lewis voting rights bill and wanting to revive the border-security bill Biden drafted with conservative Republicans that Trump opposed and the GOP-led House then killed Harris has been dinged for not putting forward deep policy proposals but no candidate campaigns successfully as a walking policy memo Campaigns do usually roll out policy papers that include cost analyses and the like presidential campaigns are really about big ideas and what direction a candidate wants to take the country when people have such strong and ingrained feelings about Trump Some might have thought that Harris would try to put distance between herself and Biden’s economic policies given how negatively Americans view the economy currently – despite fairly strong growth low unemployment and a decline in inflation in the past year Trump is also out with an ad this week hitting Harris on this very topic comparing what she’s said at different times about what’s become known as “Bidenomics.” arguing “mismanagement” from Trump during the COVID pandemic gave them a less-than-optimal hand She pointed out what she feels the administration has done well from capping prescription drug costs for seniors and cutting child poverty to an increase in manufacturing jobs and improving supply chains “I’ll say that that’s good work,” Harris said showing off how she might rebut the critique at the upcoming debate But it also shows what a lot of Democrats have been crying out for – someone to make the case on the economy well which came off as him taking the attacks personally and acting defensively Harris leaning into the argument that the administration has made progress – whether it works or not – is also a reminder that politics isn’t always about doing something because it’s already popular; it’s trying to actually win the argument something Democrats weren’t doing with Biden at the top of the ticket Polls have shown that voters have given Harris the benefit of the doubt on the economy and haven’t tied her to negative feelings about it the way they did with Biden Bash also asked Harris about Trump’s inflammatory comments about her race and ethnicity. In July, Trump said to a gathering of Black journalists “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black she said: “I am running because I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans Harris hasn’t dwelled on the historic nature of her candidacy It’s a tricky line for a Black candidate when one is trying to appeal to white voters in the middle It’s tricky for a woman running for president in a country that has never elected a woman to the White House But Harris has been deft at brushing off Trump’s attempts to drag her into controversies he’s created Her calm against Trump’s tumult is a side-by-side picture Democrats are banking on “The split screen works so well for her and Democrats right now,” said Joel Payne a Democratic strategist and chief communications officer for MoveOn Political Action stability argument that the Biden campaign was trying to execute against Trump the Harris team is able to do it with so much more effectiveness.” HOST: If the American electorate were a pie chart undecided voters would be a very thin slice those undecided voters could make the difference What could persuade people who are still on the fence NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro went to find out He spoke with 10 self-described undecided voters following the debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump Ari - great to be with you.SHAPIRO: Good to have you How did you find these rare undecided voters there were four dozen undecideds from our polls with Marist going back to May who said that we could call them back Four of them now said that they're leaning toward Harris two toward Trump and four are still undecided or might not vote at all.SHAPIRO: And what were some of the common themes What stood out to you from these conversations?MONTANARO: Well undecided voters tend to be among the most disengaged or disaffected voters you can't just apply rationale to folks who might not have as much information as some others the debate was really important for Harris including the four who are now leaning in her direction Four likely wouldn't be voting for her at all They were concerned about prices and immigration and they blamed the Biden-Harris administration for that Brady from Wisconsin - he's 30 years old - didn't want to use his full name out of security concerns but said that he and his wife have advanced in their careers but doesn't feel like he's getting ahead really.Another said that Gaza was his top issue and doesn't like Harris' stance at this point A woman from Oregon said she lines up more with RFK Jr but isn't sure what she's going to do - lots of different thoughts and feelings out there.SHAPIRO: Will you tell us more about the gender dynamics the women who are now leaning Harris' direction told me some important things mother of five - voted for Trump in 2016 but didn't vote for him in 2020 didn't vote at all in the presidential race She said that she doesn't think how Trump treats women is "befitting of a president" and doesn't want her daughters to see him as a role model.Phyllis Bohlman a Republican from Idaho - she was never liked - she's never liked Trump and is very strongly opposed to him but she wasn't sold on Joe Biden and said that she didn't know much about Harris But she did like what she saw in the debate and thought Harris performed well said that she's going to be voting for her now And a big reason that she and other women gave for backing Harris is abortion rights And that's something I heard from a lot of other women as well Linda Remensnyder from Illinois told me this.LINDA REMENSNYDER: The woman has the right to choose It's an individual decision that only a woman should choose.MONTANARO: She had been a strong Nikki Haley supporter and described herself as despondent with the choice between Biden and Trump but thought that he mishandled the presidency she was embarrassed as a medical professional but they cannot bring themselves to vote for a Democrat.SHAPIRO: This is obviously not a scientific sample but how did what you heard from these 10 people you talked to square with what we're seeing more broadly in polling?MONTANARO: Well who's director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion who we partner with for national polling.LEE MIRINGOFF: When we talk about the 2024 election then I think the next sentence will be talking about if Harris wins - about how women catapulted her into the White House.MONTANARO: Yeah That's because a gender gap has been huge in this election and Miringoff said that they just did a handful of state polls in the Upper Midwest that showed Harris and Trump tied in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin overwhelmingly leaning toward Harris - so a very close election when everyone's combined but very sharp divides between men and women.SHAPIRO: NPR's Domenico Montanaro