Investment Trust Insider – trusts that didn’t escape me last year. As 2018 gets underway, I thought that it might be worth revisiting some of the funds that I wrote about in 2017.
At the start of the year I hailed the changes that Standard Life Private Equity (SLPE) was implementing to broaden its investment proposition and noted the increasing interest in its shares. That trend continued through 2017 as the discount – or gap between its share price and net asset value (NAV) – narrowed from 17% to 10%.
F&C Private Equity (FPEO) and Princess Private Equity (PEY) were also successful in reducing their discounts although overall the median discount for the sector barely moved from 17% to 18.0% as trusts in the process of liquidating their portfolios saw their shares’ ratings weaken.
I think it would be great if we could get back to a position when some of these funds could think about expanding. That might seem fanciful but the recent purchase of the portfolio of Aberdeen Private Equity (APEF) prior to its liquidation at a modest premium highlights the latent value in these portfolios.
In March, I drew attention to the then 21% discount on India Capital Growth (ICG) and the ….. read more here