Northern Investors has released its interim report for the half-year ended 30 September 2015. The company continues to follow its realisation strategy and, during the period, the number of holdings in the portfolio was reduced further from 15 to 12. Investment sales during the period generated total cash proceeds of £2.5m. The NAV per share increased by 5.9% during period reaching a high of 553.6 pence as at 30 September 2015, which the company says reflects the positive performance by most of its remaining investee companies.
In terms of portfolio activity, Direct Valeting and Wear Inns were sold for proceeds of £0.8m and £1.4m respectively, and a further £0.3m was realised from loan repayments and deferred proceeds from earlier sales. Warmseal Windows (Newcastle) went into administration after a long period of difficult trading, but this had no impact on NAV as the investment had been written down to nil value in 2011. Since 30 September 2015 the company’s investment in Arleigh Group has been sold for cash proceeds of £1.5m.
Since July 2011, when the realisation strategy was adopted, a total of £61.4m has been returned to shareholders through four tender offers, priced at net asset value, and a series of dividends. The board expects that a further return of funds will take place before the end of the current financial year. The board say that the amount to be distributed will depend on exit activity over the next few months but that they envisage that it will be not less than £7.0m. Cash deposits stood at £7.5m as at 30 September.
The board indicated six months ago that they expected the liquidation of the portfolio to be completed by the end of 2017, with the total cash returned to shareholders projected to lie in the range between 155% and 170% of the original £59m of net assets in 2011. The board say that their latest review with the manager suggests that this projection remains valid and that this suggests an ultimate return of funds in the range between £91m and £100m.
Northern Investors on track for final liquidation by the end of 2017 : NRI