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28 February 2017

RIT Capital Partners plc

Results for the year ended 31 December 2016

RIT Capital Partners plc today published its results for the year ended 31 December 2016.

Financial Highlights:

·      Growth in net assets in 2016 of almost £300 million (before dividends)

·      Total net assets stood at £2.7 billion, a new all-time high

·      Share price total return over the year of 14.2%

·      Premium averaged 4.6% over the year

·      NAV¹ total return of 12.1% for the year

·      NAV of 1,730 pence at 31 December 2016

Performance Highlights:

·      Defensive portfolio positioning with an emphasis on capital preservation

·      All investment categories contributed positively in the year

·      Positive returns achieved with prudent net quoted equity exposure, averaging 46% over the year

·      Healthy contribution from increased allocation to Absolute Return & Credit

·      Cautious outlook for Sterling; Sterling exposure reduced in the year to 24%, with emphasis placed on the US Dollar (62%)

·      Continued active management of currency exposure made a significant impact

·      Positive performance from the private investment book; two sizeable new direct investments alongside profitable realisations

·      A more challenging year for external equity managers, following strong performance in 2015

Dividends:

·      The Board intends to pay a dividend of 32 pence per share in 2017, comprising 16 pence per share in April and 16 pence per share in October. This represents an increase of 3.2% over the previous year

Summary:

·      Over the past five years, net assets have grown by more than £1 billion (before dividends) and share price total return has been 71%

·      Since inception, RIT has now participated in 75% of market upside but only 39% of market declines

·      Over the same period, total shareholder return has compounded at 12.9% per annum compared to the ACWI² of 6.8%

·      £1,000 invested in RIT at inception in 1988 would be worth in excess of £30,000 today compared to the same amount invested in the ACWI² which would be worth ~£6,500

Commenting, Lord Rothschild, Chairman of RIT Capital Partners plc, said:

"Against a background of daunting uncertainty and political turmoil, I am pleased to report that your Company's net asset value per share during 2016 increased to 1,730 pence, representing a return of 12.1%. Your Company's shares traded at a premium which averaged 4.6% during the course of the year and total shareholder returns amounted to 14.2%.  Your Company's net assets increased by £299 million (before dividends of £48 million) to £2,692 million, an all-time high. 

Our investment policy throughout 2016 has been one of continuing caution with an emphasis on capital preservation…..  The success of our asset allocation depends on capturing the right market themes, the excellence of our external managers, stock selection, private investments and a continued emphasis on Absolute Return and Credit strategies. At this time of upheaval and uncertainty, our investment portfolio will continue to be well diversified. There could well be a period ahead of us when the avoidance of risk is as high a priority as the pursuit of gain."

ENQUIRIES:

Brunswick Group LLP:

Tom Burns / Rowan Brown 020 7404 5959

About RIT Capital Partners plc:

RIT Capital Partners plc is an investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange.  Its net assets have grown from £280 million on listing in 1988 to over £2.7 billion today.   RIT is chaired by Lord Rothschild, whose family interests retain a significant holding. www.ritcap.com

¹ Diluted net asset value per share with debt held at fair value (NAV)

² Prior to the introduction of total return indices in December 1998 the ACWI is based on the capital-only index measured in Sterling. Thereafter it is the total return index based on 50% of the ACWI measured in Sterling and 50% measured in local currencies.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

¹ Diluted net asset value per share with debt held at fair value.

² Retail Price Index.

³  The MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) we have adopted is a total return index and is based on 50% of the ACWI measured in Sterling and 50% measured in local currencies.

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

Against a background of daunting uncertainty and political turmoil, I am pleased to report that your Company's net asset value per share during 2016 increased to 1,730 pence, representing a return of 12.1%. Your Company's shares traded at a premium which averaged 4.6% during the course of the year and total shareholder returns amounted to 14.2%.

Your Company's net assets increased by £299 million (before dividends of £48 million) to £2,692 million, an all-time high. There has been a further modest increase of 1.3% in January, with the month-end NAV at 1,753 pence. Over the last three and five calendar years, the shareholder returns have amounted to 59% and 71% respectively.

Our investment policy throughout 2016 has been one of continuing caution with an emphasis on capital preservation. Quoted equity exposure was reduced, averaging 46% over the year, and we cut our allocation to Sterling, ending the year at 24%. We continue to hold gold and gold mining shares amounting to 6% of the portfolio.

On equities, some of our best performing managers of recent years produced negative results in the year under review. Against this, your Company increased its asset allocation to Absolute Return and Credit which delivered satisfactory results, including for example Eisler Capital, the macro manager where we were a founder investor. Overall our focus has been to invest in companies which stood to benefit from policymakers' continuing efforts to reflate economies, such as US financials and the industrial sector.

Private investments, both direct and those managed by third parties, met our expectations, for example, benefiting from the sale of our defensively structured investment in Williams & Glyn, which generated a 1.8x return over three years. Two significant new investments were made during the course of the year into Acorn and CSL. Acorn is one of the world's largest coffee businesses incorporating DE Master Blenders, Keurig Green Mountain and Mondelez's former coffee business. CSL is the UK's second largest alarm signalling company. Both were co-investments with industry partners with whom we have developed close relationships - Acorn alongside BDT Capital and CSL with ICONIQ Capital.

On currencies, we became cautious on the outlook for Sterling over the course of the year, increasing our exposure to currencies outside the UK, in particular the US Dollar. This represents a continuation of RIT's long-standing policy of an unconstrained approach to currency positioning.

Timing is paramount in achieving investment performance and our 2016 returns reflect a cautious approach in a period of increasing uncertainty. Since the last World War, we have enjoyed some 70 years of patiently crafted international cooperation, which is now threatened. Against this deeply worrying geo-political situation one can point to a number of positive investment factors, for example in the US, the proposed tax reduction for companies and individuals, reforms of an over-regulated system and increases in fiscal and infrastructure expenditure. These, however, come at a time late in the business cycle, when the labour market is close to full employment, with wage increases up by some 4% over the last few months. Valuations are at the high end of their historical range, inflation is returning and in these circumstances, it is likely that interest rates in the US will rise meaningfully.

The impact on China of either straightforward tariffs or of a 'border-adjusted tax' would be negative, at a time when Chinese economic momentum is fading and when it has to deal with the problem of misallocation of capital on a huge scale. China will be choosing between becoming a more open or closed society and while its economy transitions from industrial growth and exports to being more consumer-led.

We are all conscious of the risk of the European Union disintegrating following last year's Brexit vote and in having to deal with the problem of migration. The character of the European trading block remains complex, unpredictable and in need of reform. We should take into account however that the most significant forecast improvement in growth for 2017 is in Europe and that its stock markets are relatively undervalued.

In the UK, investors will be waiting for greater clarity about the outcome of Brexit negotiations and the risks of upheaval which will arise in leaving the EU. Short-term, the UK economy has performed surprisingly well. We should bear in mind however, that the World Bank and others have recently forecast a slowing of growth in the current year and beyond while the current account deficit remains daunting.

In these circumstances, our positioning is likely to remain defensive, with an emphasis on returns uncorrelated to the overall performance of equity markets. We have increased our exposure to situations which should benefit from an environment of higher inflation, for example by being short of Government Bonds after a long period of declining inflation and low interest rates. The success of our asset allocation depends on capturing the right market themes, the excellence of our external managers, stock selection, private investments and a continued emphasis on Absolute Return and Credit strategies. At this time of upheaval and uncertainty, our investment portfolio will continue to be well diversified. There could well be a period ahead of us when the avoidance of risk is as high a priority as the pursuit of gain.

Dividend

We are intending to pay a dividend of 32 pence per share in 2017, some increase above the current rate of inflation. This will be paid in two equal payments of 16 pence in April and October. We intend to maintain or increase this level in the years ahead, subject to unforeseen circumstances.

Rothschild

27 February 2017

EXTRACT FROM STRATEGIC REPORT

Strategic Aims

Our strategic aims are best illustrated by our Corporate Objective:

"to deliver long-term capital growth, while preserving shareholders' capital; to invest without the constraints of a formal benchmark, but to deliver for shareholders increases in capital value in excess of the relevant indices over time."

We believe this accurately reflects our long-term aims. However, a degree of clarification may assist shareholders in understanding what we are trying to achieve for them over time - in particular because we differ from many other large trusts who always aim to be fully invested in quoted equities.

The most important objective is long-term capital growth while preserving shareholders' capital. The essence of our investing DNA is about protecting and enhancing shareholders' wealth.

There may be times when we will deliberately place protection of shareholders' funds ahead of growth - as happened during the latter stages of the dot-com era and also in the run up to the most recent financial crisis. However, we recognise that such 'market timing' is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.

We believe that our active management of equity exposure, combined with early identification of opportunities and themes across multiple asset classes, is more likely to lead to long-term outperformance. We would hope to display healthy participation in up markets, and reasonable protection in down markets. Over time, this should allow us to compound ahead of markets throughout the cycles.

Indeed, since your Company's listing in 1988, we have participated in 75% of the market upside but only 39% of the market declines. This has resulted in our NAV per share total return compounding at 11.5% per annum, a meaningful outperformance of global equity markets. Over the same period the total return to shareholders was 12.9% per annum.

Investment Approach

The strategic aims are expressed in more practical terms in our Investment Policy:

"to invest in a widely diversified, international portfolio across a range of asset classes, both quoted and unquoted; to allocate part of the portfolio to exceptional managers in order to ensure access to the best external talent available."

It is this policy which guides us as we manage your portfolio. So, while we retain at our core an equity bias, we nonetheless have the freedom to invest your portfolio across multiple asset classes, geographies, industries and currencies. This has been the basis of our style over many years - combining thematic investing with individual securities, and private investments with public stocks. The long-term success of your Company has been drawn from a distinctive blend of individual stocks, private investments, equity funds and currency positioning, all overlaid with macro exposure management.

We believe the extent of our global reach and network of contacts allows us to maximise our ability to deploy capital effectively. We seek to capitalise on an in-house investment team working closely with our core external managers, the majority of whom are closed to new investors.

Above all, our approach is long term. For example, in relation to private investments, we are not constrained by the typical industry model of a limited life partnership. This means we can hold such investments over an extended period and choose to realise at an optimum time. On quoted investments, we aim to avoid being forced sellers of stocks if we are comfortable with their underlying fundamentals, even if it means incurring short-term losses.

2016 Performance

I was  pleased with our performance in 2016, in particular against the background of the uncertain and volatile environment.

The NAV total return for the year was 12.1%. This compared to our first KPI (RPI plus 3%) at 5.5%, an outperformance of 6.6% points. The relative KPI (the ACWI), returned 18.9% over the year.

At the same time, our premium increased from 6.9%, to end the year at 9.0%. As a result, the TSR over the year (our third KPI) reached 14.2%.

If I look back over the last three years, I am gratified that, notwithstanding our somewhat cautious stance, we have broadly kept pace with markets. On an annualised basis, our NAV total return over that period was 9.9% compared to the ACWI at 10.2%. Shareholders have benefited from a total return of 59% compared to 34% from the market. While our Chairman has continued to provide the benefit of his extensive experience, due credit must also be given to our CIO, Ron Tabbouche, who has taken a carefully structured approach to the portfolio, while also bringing enhanced focus and conviction.

As ever, it is a team effort and I would like to put on record my continuing thanks to our CFO, Andrew Jones and COO, Jonathan Kestenbaum for their unfailing efforts on your behalf. Equally important, our business only functions efficiently and effectively thanks to all of our employees across each and every function.

Francesco Goedhuis

Chief Executive Officer

J. Rothschild Capital Management Limited

ASSET ALLOCATION AND PORTFOLIO CONTRIBUTION

¹ Currency exposure is managed centrally on an overlay basis with the translation impact and the results of the currency hedging and overlay activity included in this category.

² Within Contribution %, this category includes interest, mark-to-market movements on the fixed interest notes and expenses.

³ Exposure reflects notional exposure through derivatives and adjustments for derivatives and/or liquidity held by managers.

CURRENCY EXPOSURE OF NET ASSETS

Consolidated Income Statement

The total column of this statement represents the Group's Consolidated Income Statement, prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union. The supplementary revenue and capital columns are both prepared under guidance published by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). All items in the above statement derive from continuing operations.

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

The amounts included above are net of tax where applicable.

Consolidated BALANCE sheet

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors and authorised for issue on 27 February 2017.

PARENT COMPANY BALANCE SHEET

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors and authorised for issue on 27 February 2017.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

PARENT COMPANY STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

CONSOLIDATED AND PARENT COMPANY CASH FLOW STATEMENT

¹ Shares are disclosed in 'Own shares reserve' on the consolidated balance sheet.

EARNINGS/(LOSS) PER ORDINARY SHARE - BASIC AND DILUTED

The basic earnings per ordinary share for 2016 is based on the profit of £302.1 million (2015: £188.3 million) and the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year of 154.4 million (2015: 154.5 million). The weighted average number of shares is adjusted for shares held in the EBT in accordance with IAS 33.

The diluted earnings per ordinary share for the year is based on the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the year, adjusted for the weighted average dilutive effect of SAR awards at the average market price for the year.

NET ASSET VALUE PER ORDINARY SHARE - BASIC AND DILUTED

Net asset value per ordinary share is based on the following data:

DIVIDEND

The above amounts were paid as distributions to equity holders of the Company in the relevant periods from capital profits.

On 1 March 2016 the Board declared a first interim dividend of 15.5p per share in respect of the year ended 31 December 2016 that was paid on 27 April 2016. A second interim dividend of 15.5p per share was declared by the Board on 15 August 2016 and paid on 28 October 2016.

The Board declares the payment of a first interim dividend of 16.0p per share in respect of the year ending 31 December 2017. This will be paid on 28 April 2017 to shareholders on the register on 7 April 2017.

STATEMENT OF DIRECTORS' RESPONSIBILITIES

The Directors are responsible for preparing the Report and Accounts, in accordance with applicable law and regulations.

Company law requires the Directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the Directors have prepared the Group and Parent Company financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) as adopted by the European Union. Under company law the Directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Group and the Company, and of the profit or loss of the Group for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Directors are required to: 

·  select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

·  make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

· state whether applicable IFRSs as adopted by the European Union have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

·  prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the company will continue in business.

The Directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company's transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and the Group. The records must enable Directors to ensure that the financial statements and the Directors' Remuneration Report comply with the Companies Act 2006 as amended and, as regards the Group financial statements, Article 4 of the IAS Regulation. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Company and the Group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The Directors are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the Company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

The Directors consider that the Report and Accounts taken as a whole, is fair, balanced and understandable and provides the information necessary for shareholders to assess the Group's and the Company's position, performance, business model and strategy.

Each of the Directors, whose names and responsibilities are listed in the Corporate Governance Report confirm that, to the best of their knowledge:

·      the Group financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with IFRSs as adopted by the European Union, give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit of the Group; and

·      the Strategic Report contains a fair review of the development and performance of the business and the position of the Group, together with a description of the principal risks and uncertainties that it faces.

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

The financial information for the year ended 31 December 2016 has been extracted from the statutory accounts for that year.  The auditors' report on these accounts was unqualified and did not contain a statement under either Section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.  The statutory accounts will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies following the Company's Annual General Meeting.

The financial information for the year ended 31 December 2015 has been extracted from the statutory accounts for that year which have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The auditors' report on these accounts was unqualified and did not contain a statement under either Section 498(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 2006.

REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

The full statutory accounts are available to be viewed or downloaded from the Company's website at www.ritcap.com. Neither the contents of the Company's website nor the contents of any website accessible from the Company's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.