Every investor with a passing knowledge of equities is likely to have heard of the ‘small-cap effect’: over the medium to long term, the returns from owning smaller companies have far exceeded those derived from owning larger ones. This is because smaller companies have more ‘white space’ to expand into, benefit from economies of scale as they grow and tend to be run by management teams with more ‘skin in the game’ in terms of share ownership.
Data from Deutsche Numis shows that £1,000 invested in UK small-caps for a new-born in 1955 would have grown to £9m by the time he or she reached retirement, aged 67, in 2022 – assuming all dividends were reinvested. The same amount invested in UK large-caps would have grown to just £1m.
Yet ever since the UK voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, the small-cap effect seems to have ground to a halt.
Data from Bloomberg shows the renamed Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies (ex-investment companies) index made a total return of 47% between the date of the referendum result and the end of March 2024 – well below the 65% made by the FTSE All-Share.
As international investors have shunned the UK and multiples have fallen, there has been a waning appetite among smaller companies to list on the domestic market. With merger and acquisition (M&A) activity at heightened levels, analysis from Peel Hunt shows the number of FTSE Smallcap constituents fell from 160 at the end of 2018 to 114 at the end of 2023. If the decline continues at its current rate, the FTSE Smallcap index will cease to exist by 2028.
Even though it may appear as if the direction of travel for UK smaller companies is only going one way, we disagree.
Brexit’s impact on business fundamentals
It is true that Brexit has caused small-caps to de-rate. Investors started pulling money out of the UK equity market on the day of the referendum result and the direction of flows is yet to reverse.
However, it is perhaps worth asking who the marginal seller is from here? Domestic pension funds are now all but out of the UK market. Momentum investors would have sold out long ago. International investors that remain have already weathered the threat of Jeremy Corbyn and the debacle surrounding Liz Truss. One would imagine they are here to stay.
What of fundamentals? It is difficult to find much evidence that Brexit has affected listed small-caps’ day-to-day operations. We have 300 to 500 meetings a year with company management teams and few mention it as an issue.
At the same time, the UK economy, to which small-caps have a higher exposure than their larger counterparts, is improving. Consumer confidence and the Asda Income Tracker have both been rising for several months now. Government debt levels are low relative to other G7 countries. And, for all the scepticism towards the UK, its Purchasing Managers Index is currently top of the developed economy league table.
Outperformance not dependent on a re-rating
You are probably sick of hearing the argument that UK small-caps are cheap. Yet even if there is no re-rating, the valuation differential should be enough for UK small-caps to outperform from here.
Take two theoretical companies: both grow at 7% a year and pay out 50% of their income. Company A trades on a price to earnings ratio (P/E) of 15x and Company B trades on 10x. Over a 10-year period, without a re-rating of Company B, it will make 17 percentage points more than Company A. Why? Because the benefit of reinvesting dividends at a lower valuation compounds over time.
In addition, many UK small-caps are turning depressed valuations to their advantage through the use of share buybacks. Eleven of our portfolio holdings bought back their own shares in 2023, with six more already announcing plans to do so this year.
When companies buy back shares, it increases potential dividends and earnings per share (EPS) for remaining investors. The lower the valuation, the greater the impact.
As an example, we recently spoke to Simon Emeny, the chief executive of pub operator Fuller’s, who pointed out that the company would have to spend twice as much buying a new pub as it would by buying back its own shares (effectively buying its own pubs at a discount).
And, as mentioned, small-caps remain the target of heightened M&A activity: 28 of our fund’s holdings have been taken over since 2019, at an average premium of 50%.
To Peel Hunt’s point about the FTSE Smallcap index eventually ceasing to exist: while it now only numbers 114 companies, there are more than 1,000 to choose from in the Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies index, including those quoted on the AIM market.
We believe a combination of low starting valuations, the growing use of buybacks and continued M&A activity should be enough to drive outperformance in the coming years. But if we are right, another factor is likely to come into play.
The point of maximum pessimism
The steady de-rating of the UK small-cap sector is like a piece of elastic that has become more and more stretched the further away it gets from the historical average. When small-caps start to outperform, investors that have reallocated to other areas will be harmed by their underweight and will likely re-evaluate their exposure. At this point, greed will come back into the market and the elastic that has been stretched over the past eight years will suddenly snap back.
It has happened before. The Numis Smaller Companies (ex ICs) index made 73% across 2003 and 2004, and 107% across 2009 and 2010. These two-year periods followed the bursting of the dotcom bubble and the end of the global financial crisis – periods when the point of maximum pessimism had been reached. Are we close to the point of maximum pessimism right now?
Mark Niznik is co-manager of the Artemis UK Smaller Companies fund. The views expressed above should not be taken as investment advice.