The Birthday blog - 61yo on 8th November 2020

This is the annual anniversary "Pension Builder" blog post - which reminds me that it's about time I changed the profile photo which was taken just before my 50th birthday!

The SIPP portfolio as at close of business on Friday 6th November 2020 is as per the table below.  What I'm proud of is since 1st August 2012 - over 8 years ago - I've averaged growth of 12.85%pa. Sure, if I'd put my entire SIPP into the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT) then I'd be looking at a SIPP value well over £600,000 now, maybe more - but that would take a lot of trust!  I'm a big supporter of Investment Trusts, and if I had chosen a basket of IT's like SMT, such as Allianze Technology Trust (ATT), Edinburgh Worldwide IT (EWI), or even Monks IT (MNKS), then I'd have well-beaten my own investment performance.

It has been one helluva year for all of us, never mind the SIPP which has seen its own highs and lows in the past 12 months.  Just take a look at this graph of the Portfolio Value over the past 12 months!

There's  a lot of information to post on this blog, and it's likely to take me a bit of time, as I'm also going to take stock of my current financial position and look to reflect, and possibly rebalance the portfolio to take the best advantage not just of the next 12 months but for the next 5 years.

SIPP Value on 16th October 2020

 It's been a long time since the last post, and an awful lot has happened in the meantime.

The SIPP has been through some ups and downs, or should I say downs and ups?

From a "high" of £215,000 in early February, the SIPP value plunged due to Covid, then briefly recovered, then plunged again dropping to £130,000 - a correction of 40%. Thankfully, I pretty much held my nerve and the 2nd recovery started in mid-March.  With the recovery underway, I reviewed and rebalanced my portfolio - not much, but I put more into IT companies which is where I anticipated the best gains would be, and it was a good guess!

Now, my portfolio is up to £226,000 and pretty much back on target.

From the blog posted on 13th May 2018.

Initial capital 1st August 2012 = £51,684
Projection used = 13% pa growth = 1.02% per month
For the first 36 months of the SIPP, monthly contributions were £300/mth.
Since August 2015, monthly contributions has been £750/mth.

Monthly contributions ceased on 7th June 2019.

A Lump Sum contribution of £14,000 was made on 24th January 2020 (unfortunately). 

August 1st to November 1st = 3 months
51,684 plus £300 x 3 = 52,584 @ 1.02% growth / month = £54,193

Year 1 (pe 01Nov13): b/f £54,193 plus £300 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £65,029
Year 2 (pe 01Nov14): b/f £65,029 plus £300 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £77,270
Year 3 (pe 01Nov15): b/f £77,270 plus £300 x 9 

and £750 x 3; plus 1.02% growth / month = £92,462

Year 4 (pe 01Nov16): b/f £92,462 plus £750 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £113,978
Year 5 (pe 01Nov17): b/f £113,978 plus £750 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £138,280
Year 6 (pe 01Nov18): b/f £138,280 plus £750 x 12; plus 1.02% growth / month = £165,735
Year 7 (pe 01Nov19): b/f £165,735 plus £750 x 8; plus 1.02% growth / month = £193,706
Year 8 (pe 01Nov20): b/f £193,706 plus £14,000 on 24Jan20; 

plus 1.17% growth / month = £234,166

My Target retirement fund value is £500,000

SIPP Value as at COP 4th February 2020

The intent is to post a screenshot of the SIPP portfolio at the start of each month.  I missed Monday morning, and finally got around to doing the job today (Wed 5th Feb - 0745 GMT).

The main point is that I was able to pay-in £14,000 from a company that I closed.  This will be my final contribution to the SIPP as I am no longer self-employed.  So performance will be a lot easier to monitor and measure from now on.
After making the deposit, my initial action was to buy 1300 shares at 417 in Avast (AVST) which I consider to be well over-sold following a security data issue which was (in my opinion) exaggerated. As of today (10th February) the SP of Avast is 462, so I'm happy the SP is moving in the right direction.
Since posting this screenshot, I've trimmed my holdings in both Segro (SGRO) and HG Capital Trust (HGT) to approximately £20,000 in value. The reasons being:
Segro looks a bit "ripe" and there may not be the opportunity to make similar gains in the SP in 2020 as was achieved in 2019; and
the NAV of HG Capital Trust revolves around it's shareholding in VISMA. HGT holds 50% of Visma, and that is over 20% of the NAV value of HGT. That seems a bit high a holding to me for an investment trust.

The SIPP Portfolio going into 2020

SIPP Portfolio Update 16th December 2019

It has been a long time since I posted my last blog on Pensionbuilder.
The market fell off a cliff in October 2018, and the state of the portfolio was too bad for me to write about, it was a storm I had to weather alone.
When I wrote my last blog, the SIPP had a value of £158,613 and I had shaped it to what I thought was a recovery made.
Those companies that I sold off were:-
British Aerospace (BA.) - the SP of this company is now still lower than when I sold my holding at 588 on 12th October 2018. 
Genus (GNS) - I sold this company as 2425 on 2nd October 2018, and the SP is now at 3234 (from a year-low of 2122), so while it was a good decision to sell perhaps I should have bought back in when the SP had recovered from the bottom. However, for a company with a value of over £2bn revenue is under £500m and profit before tax is under £10m.
Safecharge Group (SCH) - sold at 285 on the 12th October 2018, is a company that I should have held onto, as it was bought-out in a successful bid in May 2020.
Other holdings sold during the year:-
FDM Group (FDM)
GVC Holdings (GVC)

Current holdings in the SIPP (as at Friday 13th December 2019)

Blackrock Smaller Co IT (BRSC) holding now = 1,234 (up 34); Value = £20,212

GB Group (GBG) holding now = 2,941(up 1540); Value = £32,890

HG Capital Trust IT (HGT) holding now = 10,637 (n/c); Value = £26,858

Homeserve (HSV) holding now = 2,216 (up 690); Value = £27,567

Keywords Studios (KWS) holding now = 1,570 (up 310); Value = £25,511

Legal & General (LGEN) holding now = 6618 (up 2325); Value = £27,240

Segro PLC (SGRO) holding now = 3,257 (up 634); Value = £28,205
Recent purchases (in the past week)
Diploma (DPLM) bought 270; Value = £5,338
Marshalls (MSLH) bought 668; Value = £5,454
Portfolio Value = £195,715

Cash: holding now = £43

Portfolio Value = £195,758 

SIPP Porgtfolio as at 1st November 2018

October 2018 has been the worst month on record for my SIPP since I started managing it for myself in August 2012.  It has been so bad that it has taken me over a week to get my head around what's happened to be able to write this blog..

Current holdings in the SIPP (valies as on the morning of 1st November)

British Aerospace (BA.) holding now = nil : SOLD

Blackrock Smaller Co IT (BRSC) holding now = 1200 (n/c); Value = £15,600

BP (BP.) Bought 785 shares; holding now = 3850; Value = £21,860 

FDM Group (FDM) Dividend 11 shares; holding now = 866; Value = £7,395

GB Group (GBG) Bought 383 shares; holding now = 2941; Value = £15,058 

Genus (GNS) holding now = nil : SOLD

GVC Holdings (GVC) Bought 390 shares; holding now = 1780; Value = £16,794

HG Capital Trust IT (HGT) holding now = 840 (n/c); Value = £16,464

Homeserve (HSV) holding now = 1526 (n/c); Value = £14,527

Keywords Studios (KWS) Bought 481 shares; holding now = 1260; Value = £17,338

Legal & General (LGEN) Dividend 118 shares; holding now = 6618; Value = £16,631 

Safecharge Group (SCH) holding now = nil : SOLD

Segro PLC (SGRO) Dividend 23 shares; holding now = 2623; Value = £16,131

Cash: holding now = £813

Portfolio Value = £158,613 (was £171,247)  DOWN £13,384 (including £750 monthly contribution) or 7.78%

All the major transactions in the period took place after the major market moves down, as I started the position the portfolio into what I hoped to be a recovery mode.

Those companies that I thought would not recover quickly in the short-term: British Aerospace, Genus, and Safecharge; were sold off completely.  The funds that came available were invested into BP, GB Group, GVC, and Keywords Studios.

As per last months comment, I'm still fairly hopeful of the BP shareprice (SP) topping 600, but this may not happen until Jan/Feb.
GVC is investing heavily in the USA and when this starts to come together, I can see this company growing considerably - although I expect it to be taken over by a major US company before then.
GB Group is very profitable and it's business in internet security is growing very fast - I took the share weakness due to the market weakness as a buying opportunity.
The same goes for Keywords Studios, although this company may require a bit longer to get back on track.

SIPP Portfolio as at 30 September 2018

Current holdings in the SIPP

British Aerospace (BA.) holding now = 731 (n/c); Value = £4,605 (UP £177)

Blackrock Smaller Co IT (BRSC) holding now = 1200 (n/c); Value = £17,184 (down £516)

BP (BP.) Bought 1565 shares; holding now = 3065; Value = £18,084 (cost £17,366)

FDM Group (FDM) holding now = 855 (n/c); Value = £8,294 (UP £257) 

GB Group (GBG) Dividend 3 shares; holding now = 2558; Value = £14,836 (down £1,082) 

Genus (GNS) holding now = 160 (n/c); Value = £3,824 (down £739)

GVC Holdings (GVC) holding now = 1390 (n/c); Value = £12,732 (down £2,572)

HG Capital Trust IT (HGT) holding now = 840 (n/c); Value = £16,716 (UP £504)

Homeserve (HSV) holding now = 1526 (n/c); Value = £15,641 (down £229)

Keywords Studios (KWS) holding now = 779 (n/c); Value = £15,120 (down £460)

Legal & General (LGEN) holding now = 6500 (n/c); Value = £17,030 (UP £520)

Safecharge Group (SCH) holding now = 2464 (n/c); Value = £8,008 (UP £247)

Sage (SGE) holding now = nil : SOLD

Segro PLC (SGRO) holding now = 2600 (n/c); Value = £16,536 (down £634)

Cash: holding now = £2,637

Portfolio Value = £171,247 was £173,433  DOWN £2,186 or 1.26%

The loss in the month was worse that as reported as the current SIPP value includes a monthly contribution of £750, so the loss in the period is actually £2,936.

Major transactions include a sale of the complete holding in SAGE, as I cannot see a recovery in the SP in the next 6 months.  The business is undergoing major restructuring, which is something that I did not take into account.

The proceeds of the sale have been pumped into oil share BP: there's a few factors behind this a) the company has finally completed the payment of damages for the Texas oil spill; b) the company is now leaner and more efficient and has new income streams coming into play; c) the USA is about to launch trade sanctions on major oil producer Iran, and that could well push up the price of oil to US$90.  Since I've been a shareholder of BP, the share-price has improved and we should see it top 600 (my initial purchase was at 550).

I'm concerned that the actions of US President Trump have affected the SP of Genus (GNS) which is a company with large markets in China, and it seems unlikely that there will be a recovery soon.

I am also concerned about the drop in value of GVC from summer highs of over 1100 to under 930 today (2nd Oct 18).  Personally, given the strength in the management of the company, I see this as a buying opportunity and will be looking to increase my holding.

The same can be said for GB Group (GBG), this company should have a significant future and may well be in the FTSE100 within 5 years.