Hadrian’s Wall off to slow start – Hadrian’s Wall Secured Investments has published its first set of accounts for the period ended 30 June 2017. Its shares started trading on the London Stock Exchange on 20 June 2016 following an IPO that raised a net £78.4m. In addition, a C share issue on 31 May 2017 raised a further £44.3m.
At 30 June 2017, the NAV of an ordinary share was 97.69p. This reflects the initial net proceeds at the IPO, plus interest earned on loans and cash investment, less expenses and dividends. Over the period the NAV total return per ordinary share was 0.90%. At 30 June 2017, the NAV of the C shares was 97.97p.
On 21 July 2017, they declared a dividend of 1.5 p for the quarter to 30 June 2017. This dividend is in line with the target dividend yield of 6% per annum. The company is focusing on deploying the net proceeds of the C share issue and expects to be fully deployed during the first quarter of 2018.
The £62m worth of transactions that had closed by 30 June had an initial average life of 3.9 years and an average gross yield, or interest rate, to the company of 8.8% before expenses. The gross yields on loans range from 7.5% to 11% per annum.
Returns have been held back by the time it has taken to invest the proceeds of the two share issues. On this, the manager has this to say: “The Investment Adviser is aware that investors seek to have their funds generating a return within a reasonable period of time. On the other hand, one of the greatest risks to an investment strategy is investing too quickly without sufficient time to select appropriate transactions and conduct proper due diligence. The amount of the C Share proceeds, which are targeted to be invested within nine months, strikes a good balance of providing enough time for the Investment Adviser’s selective investment approach while being able to meet shareholders’ expectations.”
HWSL : Hadrian’s Wall off to slow start