6 May 2022

Castelnau Group Limited publishes its Q1 2022 Quarterly Investment Report

Castelnau Group Limited, an investment company established to invest in public and private companies with the aim of outperforming the FTSE All Share Total Return Index over the long term, has published its Quarterly Investment Report for the three months ended 31 March 2022.

The Report is available here: https://www.castelnaugroup.com/investor-relations/reports-factsheets

Castelnau Group's portfolio comprises investments in Dignity Plc, Hornby Plc, Stanley Gibbons Group plc, Showpiece Technologies and Cambium Group, a wedding gift list service, as well as in two 'enabling' businesses, Rawnet and Ocula Technologies.  The Investment Manager to Castelnau Group is Phoenix Asset Management Partners Limited. Net Assets declined by 9.5% in the quarter as our holdings declined in price, particularly Dignity (-14.4%) and Hornby (-21.4%).

Gary Channon, CEO and CIO of Phoenix, commented:

"All of our businesses are making positive strategic progress towards our goals and there is some good momentum building, but there is a long way to go. We are looking for CEOs at Hornby and Dignity, two of our portfolio businesses. We are finding opportunities coming our way, especially within the fields that we are already in, , End of Life, Weddings, Hobbies and Collectables. We remain of the view that there is considerable upside not properly valued at current prices.

"Our cash declined slightly in the quarter as we added to our holdings in existing businesses, particularly Cambium. We are excited to announce that in the quarter we acquired a stake of Hostology, software that allows venues to manage weddings, and we believe a closer collaboration between our wedding planning business, Rock My Wedding, and Hostology will benefit both businesses. We are undertaking a capital raise for Cambium to fund this acquisition and a new business we intend to launch in the baby list space.

"Pleasingly, we have reached a stage where all of our portfolio companies are either profitable or at least breaking even. Whilst profitability is just base camp on the way to building sustainable high returns, it's a prerequisite on the path to success. That being said, given that we started with three of our four businesses losing money, it is definitely progress."

Enquiries:

Phoenix Asset Management Limited

+44 (0) 208 600 0100

Gary Channon

Steve Tatters

Gina Bocek

Liberum Capital Limited

+44 (0) 20 3100 2000

Darren Vickers

Owen Matthews

Will King

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

+44 (0) 20 7638 9571

Caroline Merrell

Toby Moore

Jos Bieneman