JZCP : Busy period for JZ Capital as it deploys $129m
Adding back the dividend they declared in the period, JZ Capital’s net asset value rose from $10.25 to $10.27 over the six months that ended 31 August 2014. The dividend paid in the period was 16 cents per share and they have just announced another dividend of 15 cents which will be payable
$96.4m flowed into the fund from disposals and distributions and $65.7m was raised via an issue of convertible bonds. $57.3m of this came from the sale of Safety Insurance. After the end of the period they announced the sale of Milestone Aviation for $40m.
$128.6m was invested – $26.9m in US micro cap, $35.2m in European micro cap, $12.5m in real estate portfolios and $50.0m for Bright Spruce, their new asset management fund. In terms of individual companies – €18.0m went into Petrocorner, a strategic build-up to acquire 2 – 3% of Spain’s petrol station market; $16.2m into TierPoint, a provider of information technology and data centre services; $14.2m into Igloo, the iconic outdoor cooler business; and €4.0m into Toro Finance, our short-term working capital finance company in Spain. Since the end of the period they have invested a further €2.1m in Fincontinuo, a leading independent consumer lending platform in Italy and $9.2m in Paragon Water Systems, a manufacturer of water filtration systems.