Company Announcements

Half Year Report

Schroder BSC Social Impact Trust plc hereby submits its Half Year Report for the six months ended 31 December 2021 as required by the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rule 4.2.

The Half Year Report is also available to download from the Company's webpage. Please click on the following link to view the document:

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6796G_1-2022-3-30.pdf

The Company has submitted a copy of its Half Year Report to the National Storage Mechanism and it will shortly be available for inspection at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism

Enquiries:

Gareth Faith

Schroder Investment Management Limited

Tel: 020 7658 5264

Financial and Impact performance highlights

·      NAV Total Return of 0.9% during the period and 7.0% in 12.5 months since inception.

·      Net proceeds of the Company's initial public offering and November 2021 placing fully committed with £60 million deployed.

·      Investments already delivering significant social impact through 100 social organisations reaching more than 157,000 people, at least 90% of whom are from disadvantaged or vulnerable backgrounds.

·      Portfolio companies delivering over 10,000 affordable homes, £36m in near term value as savings for government and households.

Outlook

·      Ongoing positive outlook for portfolio despite challenging backdrop. Company is targeting high social impact models with revenue primarily from UK government sources, that have historically proven resilient during times of economic and stock market stress.

·      Board confident that the Company will continue to provide an attractive combination of significant social impact, high quality returns and low correlation to mainstream markets in the medium term.

Chair's Statement

I am pleased to present the first half year report of Schroder BSC Social Impact Trust plc ("the Company"), covering the period from 1 July to 31 December 2021.

We are publishing this report at a time of profound global geopolitical and economic instability. Just as the world was starting to move out of a 2-year long pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent ripples of uncertainty around the globe. The conflict adds upward pressure on already rising energy prices, and there are increased concerns regarding global food supply, which could lead to food price shocks affecting the United Kingdom. The expected increases in the cost of living and slower economic growth will disproportionately impact lower income groups, who have already been severely impacted by the global pandemic.

There are now over 80 million people displaced globally, with events in Ukraine causing this to rise further. The UK government and society will need to find compassionate and practical ways to respond.

This challenging context emphasises the importance of the Company's mission to invest in organisations that have a positive impact on the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged people across the UK. The services of companies such as AgilityEco (in the Bridges Evergreen Holdings portfolio), which helps lift people out of fuel poverty, or the new Refugee Transitions Outcomes Fund mobilised by the Bridges Social Outcomes Fund II, are of critical importance at this time.

The need for capital to invest in proven models that address the challenges of vulnerable people while providing a sustainable return to investors is more pressing than ever.

The Company provides access to private market social impact investments delivering significant social impact alongside financial returns to investors. The Company also offers a degree of inflation protection and low correlation to traditional asset classes which is particularly relevant to investors looking to diversify their portfolios.

Financial performance

The Company has delivered strong shareholder returns since inception on 22 December 2020. NAV total return for the six-month period to 31st December 2021 was 0.9%, resulting in a NAV total return since inception of 7.0% (6.9% annualised). Overall, the Company's Net Asset Value per share rose from 104.3p to 104.7p following a dividend payment of 0.57p in the period.

In November 2021, the Company raised £10.8m through the issuance of 10.3m new shares through a secondary offering to a mix of new and existing shareholders. The proceeds of the equity issuance were fully committed by February 2022, ahead of target, to one new and two follow-on investments.

Once the portfolio is fully invested, we have a target NAV total return of Consumer Price Index ("CPI") plus 2%, averaged over a rolling three- to five- year period. The  investments made in the period contribute to our strategy to deliver this financial return combined with high social impact.

A more detailed analysis of performance and more detail on the new investments are included in the Portfolio Manager's Report.

Social impact performance

As of 31 December 2021, the Company had committed £73m and deployed £60m, reaching 157,000 people, the majority of whom are from disadvantaged or vulnerable backgrounds. The Company's investments helped fund over 10,000 affordable homes through its investments in the high impact housing asset class and generated significant near-term value as savings for government and households.

For a closer look at the front-line impact of the Company over the last period, the Portfolio Manager's Report includes a selection of case studies highlighting the positive social impact created by the Company's investments, showing how invested proceeds have made a difference across the three main asset classes of debt for social enterprise, high impact housing and social outcomes contracts. I am also delighted to mention that we plan to publish our first annual impact report in the second quarter of 2022. This will include further case studies to bring to life the transformative social impact facilitated by the Company's investments and offer deep and transparent analysis of our impact measurement and performance.

Premium/discount management

During the full calendar year 2021, the Company traded at an average premium to NAV of 1.5%, ending the period close to par at a discount of -0.2%.

As of the date of this report, the Company remains at a slight discount of -0.2%. The lack of volatility in the Company's share price is encouraging and compares favourably with the negative returns seen in many asset classes year to date. 

The Company has shareholder authority to issue up to 10% of the issued share capital on a non-pre-emptive basis, and a proposal for authority to purchase up to 14.99% of the Company's issued share capital will be put forward at the Company's 2022 AGM.

Should the Company's shares reach a sufficient premium to NAV, the Board may seek to issue shares to new and existing investors.

Outlook

In a climate of continuing and growing instability, the Company's investment proposition, to deliver stable risk-adjusted investor returns alongside significant social impact, remains as relevant as ever.

The long-term effects of the pandemic, along with the additional challenge of the geopolitical instability, have exacerbated the social challenges that the Company's investments have been set up to alleviate. Demand for the services offered by these social organisations has increased and we do not anticipate this to slow down. These organisations deliver essential government-mandated services and derive a substantial proportion of their revenues from government-backed sources, which have been historically stable through economic cycles. Some of these government contracts are also indexed to inflation, and the Company's portfolio includes some further inflation resilience through ownership of real assets such as housing and inflation-indexed leases.

The Board is confident that the Company's investment thesis of impact-driven value, together with strong execution by the Manager, will continue to provide an attractive combination of significant social impact, high quality risk-adjusted returns and low correlation to traditional quoted markets.

Your Company plays an important role in helping to expand capital to the social enterprises and other organisations across the UK that are purpose-built and focused on creating a fairer, inclusive and thriving society with sustainable financial models. In pursuit of this, we are keen to help educate retail and institutional investors about the dual returns of social investment and welcome your engagement with us.

Webinar/investor event

I would like to invite you to attend a webinar to be given by the Portfolio Manager on 31 March 2022 at 10.00 a.m., providing an opportunity to learn more about social impact investment, the Company's strategy and outlook, and to ask questions. Shareholders are encouraged to sign up using this link: https://registration.duuzra.com/form/feedback/SBSIInterim2022

The webinar will also be available on the Company's webpages shortly after.

Susannah Nicklin

Chair

30 March 2022

Portfolio Manager's Report

Portfolio Performance

The Net Asset Value (NAV) total return for the six-month period to 31 December 2021 was 0.9%. This resulted in a NAV total return since the 22 December 2020 IPO of 7.0%, or 6.9% annualised. Overall, the Company's NAV per share rose from 104.3p to 104.7p following a dividend payment of 0.57p in the period based on the earnings of the company in the year to 30 June 2021, as set out in the NAV bridge below.

As shown in the table below, portfolio returns to date have been driven by the performance of more seasoned investments in their mature phase. These investments are primarily from the seed portfolio originally purchased from Big Society Capital at IPO. Mature investments have contributed 8.16% to the NAV growth per share since launch. Assets still in their Investment phase are earlier in their life cycle and J-curves, and to date are producing returns in line with expectations.

The top three drivers of financial performance in the six-month period to 31 December 2021 were:

-        The Charity Bond Portfolio contributed 0.72p to NAV per share growth from income and the tender at a premium of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) bond; in December 2021, CAF tendered its outstanding bonds maturing in 2026 at a premium to par; the Company participated in the tender, realising a gain on the investment, and reinvested the capital proceeds in CAF's bond maturing in 2031.

-        The Real Lettings Property Fund contributed 0.38p to NAV per share growth from rental income and valuation gains in underlying properties.

-        Bridges Evergreen Fund contributed 0.13p to NAV per share growth with contributions from strong operating performance from investments in AgilityEco and New Reflexions partially offset by below plan performance in the newer investment in Skills Training UK due to higher costs for the establishment of future study programmes.

The Social Impact performance of the portfolio is running ahead of plan in benefiting more disadvantaged groups across areas such as housing, education, fuel poverty and health and social care. The Company's investments are supporting over 100 social organisations benefiting over 157,000 people of which over 90% are from vulnerable or disadvantaged backgrounds. We aim to work with organisations with deep experience in tackling social issues in the local context, as we believe this reduces risk. The average delivery track record of organisations in the portfolio is 28 years. These organisations have built strong relationships with local stakeholders, deep knowledge of the social issues they are addressing, and are trusted by their beneficiaries.

Social outcomes reported in the period include:

-        Within the Resonance Homelessness Funds tenancy sustainment⁹ remained high at 100% within the crucial first six months, with 76% of tenants reporting an improvement in support network and relationships, and 46% of tenants in employment.

-        Within the Bridges Evergreen portfolio an organisation that tackles fuel poverty, AgilityEco, is reaching over 45,000 individuals generating over £200m worth of lifetime savings in energy bills.

-        Within the Social Outcomes Funds 157 families have completed the Functional Family Therapy (FFT) intervention in Norfolk and Suffolk; young people from families that complete the intervention on average stay out of care 97% of the time.

We will be publishing a full review of the Company's social impact performance in our inaugural social impact report in Q2 2022.

Portfolio Cash Flows and Balance Sheet

In the period £10.1m was drawn down into existing investments - with the majority of that (£6.4m) going towards delivering new affordable homes in the High Impact Housing allocation. In Debt for Social Enterprises there have been further investments into the secured co-investments with Charity Bank, mostly to Sue Ryder, delivering in Health and Social Care. Within Social Outcomes Contracts further investment was made into existing projects tackling children on the edge of care and homelessness, as well as a new investment aiming to deliver improvements on the challenges of refugee integration.

In November 2021, the company raised £10.8m through the issuance of 10.3m new shares through a secondary offering to a mix of new and existing shareholders.

Some of the Company's higher impact investments involve the staged deployment of capital over multiple years; we aim to mitigate any cash drag on returns through our Liquid ESG allocation. This is invested in assets with similar financial risk and return characteristics as the core asset allocation, though lower direct social impact given the lower availability of such assets in listed markets. Post the November share issuance, we have been targeting new Liquid ESG investments in areas with low interest rate duration and some inflation benefit, given our caution on fixed income duration in a rising inflation environment. Following the share issue, we made new investments in Greencoat UK Wind and Bluefield Solar, with an additional investment in to TwentyFour Sustainable Enhanced Income Asset Backed Securities (ABS) closing after the period end.

⁹All beneficiaries were able to remain in their homes, and no tenancies were prematurely terminated due to abandonment or eviction.

Recent Events

In February the Company announced the full commitment of the proceeds of our November fundraise ahead of target. We directed new investments into a combination of follow-ons, new private market funds and investments exclusively available through Big Society Capital's broader activities - such as co-investments and secondary purchases. In selecting the new investments, we balanced the faster deploying options in the Debt for Social Enterprises segment which reduce cash drag for the Company, with an increased allocation to High Impact Housing which offers more inflation-linkage. The new investment also broadens our geographical presence and provides exposure to new impact areas, such as community renewable energy.

We invested £4.5m in the secondary purchase of the SASC Community Investment Fund (CIF). CIF makes secured loans to local charities and social enterprises and has a track record since 2014 of delivering financial returns and impact. CIF holds a diversified portfolio of loans with exposure to community renewable energy, social and specialist supported housing, early years education and family support in the community. CIF's investments benefit more disadvantaged groups with a high proportion of revenue coming from government mandated sources.

We were able to secure a competitive discount from the foundation seller benefiting the Company's investors, while enabling the foundation to recycle the capital into new catalytic impact opportunities. We are targeting a 5% IRR on the investment, with the benefit of a mature fully deployed fund immediately contributing to returns.

We committed £5m into a follow-on investment in the Man GPM RI Community Housing Fund (MCHF) which supports those people who are underserved by the current housing rental and purchase market, with a focus on those earning the median income and below, including young families and key workers.

MCHF has a target of achieving 70% invested in affordable housing (tenures include social rent, affordable rent, key worker rent, and shared ownership). Across the seven projects in contract, 793 homes will be delivered with c.90% of those being an affordable tenure¹⁰. The fund is deploying capital faster than originally anticipated and early projects and pipeline demonstrate strong early alignment with its impact goals and fund IRR target of 8%.

In addition, we committed a further £1.6m into the Charity Bond Portfolio managed by Rathbones. These investments will be targeted towards organisations with established track records of delivering high social impact to disadvantaged groups with strong balance sheets and historically resilient revenue from government sources. The current portfolio has a gross income yield of 4.25%.

Following these investments the capital raised by the Company is fully committed, and 78% invested. Of the capital awaiting deployment, 19% of NAV is invested in yielding Liquid ESG assets with similar financial risk return characteristics to the high impact portfolio.

¹⁰ Discounted rent (social, affordable or key worker) or discounted home ownership (shared ownership).

Outlook

Since the period end, significant volatility has returned to financial markets with a combination of inflation fears, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent commodity price increases. This environment is creating significant cost of living challenges for many low-income groups in the UK. Many of the Company's investments in areas such as affordable housing and fuel poverty are directly tackling this challenge and are seeing significant additional demand. Across our activities we are seeing an increasing opportunity set where investment can be part of the solution in addressing social issues.

The underlying revenue sources of the portfolio are primarily from UK government backed sources (80% as of March 2022) and have been historically stable through economic cycles. We anticipate that stability will continue through the current turbulence and fiscal pressures, supported by the savings government and society make with the impact of our investments.

We have closely followed the risks of higher inflation, with the asset allocation of the Company designed to be resilient through periods of rising prices. The portfolio includes assets such as index linked leases, the ownership of real assets such as housing and renewables, and social enterprises with government contracts that have historically moved with inflation and floating rate debt.

In this highly uncertain environment, the goals of the Company remain the same: to deliver for shareholders high quality returns with a low correlation to traditional quoted markets alongside significant social impact for more disadvantaged groups across the UK.

Half Year Report

Principal Risks and Uncertainties

The Board has determined that the key risks for the Company are strategic risk, investment management risk, liquidity risk, valuation risk and cyber security risk. Additionally, the Board also discussed and monitored a number of risks that could potentially impact the Company's ability to meet its strategic objectives. These were political risk, climate change risk, COVID-19 related risks and the potential economic and policy effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in particular higher inflation in the UK.The Board has determined they are not currently material for the Company. These risks are set out on pages 32 and 33 of the Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 June 2021.

Except with respect to the degree of uncertainty relating to the economic effects of the conflict in Ukraine, the Company's principal risk and uncertainties, and their mitigation, have not materially changed during the six months ended 31 December 2021 or since the Annual Report was published on 25 October 2021.

Going concern

The Board has considered the Company's principal risks and uncertainties (including whether there are any emerging risks); has scrutinised the detailed cash flow forecast; and considered their assessment of the likelihood and quantum of funds which could be raised from sales of investments. As a result, the Board is comfortable that the Company will have sufficient liquid funds to pay operating expenses.

On this basis, the Board considers it appropriate to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the Company's accounts.

Related party transactions

There have been no transactions with related parties that have materially affected the financial position or the performance of the Company during the six months ended 31 December 2021.

Directors' responsibility statement

The Directors confirm that, to the best of their knowledge, this set of condensed financial statements has been prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice, in particular with Financial Reporting Standard 104 "Interim Financial Reporting" and with the Statement of Recommended Practice, "Financial Statements of Investment Companies and Venture Capital Trusts" issued in April 2021 and that this Interim Management Report includes a fair review of the information required by 4.2.7 R and 4.2.8 R of the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Income Statement

¹The Company began investment activities following its IPO on 22 December 2020. The comparative figures cover the period from the date of incorporation on 24 September 2020 to 30 June 2021.

The "Total" column of this statement is the profit and loss account of the Company. The "Revenue" and "Capital" columns represent supplementary information prepared under guidance issued by The Association of Investment Companies. The Company has no other items of other comprehensive income, and therefore the net return after taxation is also the total comprehensive income for the period.

All revenue and capital items in the above statement derive from continuing operations. No operations were acquired or discontinued in the period.

Statement of Changes in Equity

For the six months ended 31 December 2021 (unaudited)

For the period ended 30 June 2021 (audited)¹

¹The Company began investment activities following its IPO on 22 December 2020. The comparative figures cover the period from the date of incorporation on 24 September 2020 to 30 June 2021.

Statement of Financial Position

at 31 December 2021

Cash Flow Statement

¹The Company began investment activities following its IPO on 22 December 2020. The comparative figures cover the period from the date of incorporation on 24 September 2020 to 30 June 2021.

Notes to the Accounts

1.      Financial Statements

The information contained within the accounts in this half year report has not been audited or reviewed by the Company's independent auditor.

The figures and financial information for the period ended 30 June 2021 are extracted from the latest published accounts of the Company and do not constitute statutory accounts for that period. Those accounts have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies and included the report of the auditor which was unqualified and did not contain a statement under either section 498(2) or 498(3) of the Companies Act 2006.

The Company began investment activities following its IPO on 22 December 2020. The comparative figures cover the period from the date of incorporation on 24 September 2020 to 30 June 2021.

2.      Accounting policies

Basis of accounting

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice, in particular with Financial Reporting Standard 104 "Interim Financial Reporting" and with the Statement of Recommended Practice "Financial Statements of Investment Trust Companies and Venture Capital Trusts" issued by the Association of Investment Companies in April 2021.

All of the Company's operations are of a continuing nature.

The accounting policies applied to these accounts are consistent with those applied in the accounts for the period ended 30 June 2021.

3.      Taxation

The Company's effective corporation tax rate is nil, as deductible expenses exceed taxable income. The Company intends to continue meeting the conditions required to retain its status as an Investment Trust Company, and therefore no provision has been made for deferred tax on any capital gains or losses arising on the revaluation or disposal of investments.

4.      Return per share

5.      Dividend paid

No dividend has been declared in respect of the six months ended 31 December 2021.

6.      Called-up share capital

Changes in called-up share capital during the period were as follows:

7.      Net asset value per share

8.      Financial instruments measured at fair value

The Company's financial instruments within the scope of FRS 102 that are held at fair value comprise certain investments held in its investment portfolio.

FRS 102 requires that financial instruments held at fair value are categorised into a hierarchy consisting of the three levels below. A fair value measurement is categorised in its entirety on the basis of the lowest level input that is significant to the fair value measurement.

Level 1 - valued using unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets.

Level 2 - valued using observable inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1.

Level 3 - valued using inputs that are unobservable.

At 31 December 2021, the Company's investment held at fair value, were categorised as follows:

At 30 June 2021, the Company's investment held at fair value, were categorised as follows:

There have been no transfers between Levels 1, 2 or 3 during the period, or comparative period.

9.      Uncalled capital commitments

At 30 December 2021, the Company had uncalled capital commitments amounting to £17,917,000 in respect of follow-on investments, which may be drawn down or called by investee entities, subject to agreed notice periods.

10.    Events after the interim period that have not been reflected in the financial statements for the interim period

The Directors have evaluated the period since the interim date and have not noted any events which have not been reflected in the financial statements.