AWEM Ashoka Whiteoak Emerging Markets Trust Plc

13 December 2024

Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust plc

(the ‘Company’)

Half-Year Report and Unaudited Financial Statements

For the six months ended 30 September 2024

Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust plc, the alpha driven global emerging markets equity investment trust, is pleased to report the Company’s Half-Year Report for the six months ended 30 September 2024 (the ‘period’).

The Half-Year Report will also shortly be available on the Company's website at https://awemtrust.com/reports-account/ and on the FCA’s National Storage Mechanism https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism. Further, the Half-Year Report is linked in this announcement (Half-Year Report and Unaudited Financial Statements.pdf).

Key highlights:

• Net Asset Value (NAV) total return of 7.4% for the period, marginally underperforming the Company’s reference benchmark (MSCI EM (GBP) Index) of 7.8%, largely indicative of volatility and challenging headwinds faced across emerging market equities, particularly in August 2024.
• From the IPO in May 2023, the Company has delivered NAV total returns that have outperformed the benchmark by 3.4%.
• Since the period end on 30 September to 10 December 2024 the Company has generated strong NAV total returns of 3.7%, outperforming the benchmark index return of 0.0% by 3.7%.
• Key contributors for the period included:
  • Awfis Space Solutions, India’s largest workspace solutions provider;
  • Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, the owner of the only stock and futures exchange in Hong Kong and the London Metals Exchange; and,
  • Naspers, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world, based in South Africa.

• The sectoral and geography exposures that the Company benefits from further demonstrates the strengths of the Investment Adviser’s disciplined bottom-up stock selection process, which utilises the unique OpcoFincoTM methodology to identify attractively valued stocks with positive catalysts and which in turn is complemented by its proprietary ABLExTM ESG screening filter.
• During the period, the Company issued six further tranches of new shares to investors, representing 2.2% of the shares in issue at the beginning of the period. Since the period end to 12 December 2024, the Company has also issued a further 700,000 new shares to investors through two additional tranches.
• The Company looks forward to continuing its track record of delivering organic growth via new share issuance in 2025, in addition to further potential growth opportunities that may arise.

Martin Shenfield, Chair of the Company, commented:

“We are pleased to present these half-year results, showing investment performance ahead of the benchmark since IPO. The Company is the only premium-listed, equity-focused investment company to have launched since 2018 and continues to deploy capital according to WhiteOak’s unique OpcoFincoTM and ABLExTM methodologies in order to construct a highly diversified portfolio of attractively valued stocks with enduring growth characteristics to generate alpha.

“During the period, the Company has continued to deliver leading NAV performance amongst the AIC Global Emerging Markets peer group. The Investment Manager’s local knowledge and in-house analytical research coverage offer the opportunity to generate alpha through stock selection. Once again, leveraging the investment manager’s extensive network and local knowledge to access higher quality and attractively valued anchor and pre-IPO opportunities materially contributed to performance and included the period’s largest contributor. We are pleased to note that the portfolio’s diversification by both sector and geography is demonstrated in the spread of key positive contributors for the period. This further exemplifies the benefits of the Investment Manager’s bottom-up approach to stock selection to create a wide range of sources for generating portfolio alpha regardless of individual market movements.

“The Board and the Investment Manager would like to take this opportunity to reiterate its thanks to all shareholders who have supported the Company over the period and since its incorporation, in addition to the subsequent share issues.”

For further information:

Company Secretary, JTC

WhiteOak Capital Partners Pte Ltd.

Marex

Burson Buchanan

About Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust plc

Ashoka WhiteOak Emerging Markets Trust plc (AWEMT) is a UK investment trust seeking to achieve long-term capital appreciation primarily through investing in a multi-cap portfolio of equities that provide exposure to global emerging markets. Advised by White Oak Capital Partners Pte. Ltd, founded by Prashant Khemka with leading emerging markets investment experience. White Oak Capital Group has delivered an exceptional track record for its other strategies, and has £5.9 billion in assets under management or advisory4. Analytical approach integral to disciplined research process underpinned by proprietary frameworks OpcoFinco™ for valuation and ABLEx™ for ESG research. The team at WhiteOak believes that emerging markets present potential for higher alpha. Emerging markets remain under-researched and inefficient. AWEMT leverages WhiteOak's investment approach to capture the higher alpha potential in these markets. No fixed management fee. Manager remuneration is aligned with alpha generation and hence shareholders' interests. The Investment Manager is remunerated solely as a function of outperformance over the benchmark.