Major announcement from Hadrian’s Wall Secured Investments regarding its future – A major announcement from the board of Hadrian’s Wall Secured Investments (HWSL). Having consulted with shareholders representing a significant proportion of the company’s shares, the company’s board has determined that the trust should not continue in its current form. The board is now undertaking a strategic review of the options available to it with a view to maximising shareholder value, which might include putting the company into run-off.
In coming to this decision, the announcement goes on to note that the board acknowledges that the challenges already facing HWSL in terms of its size, scalability, limited secondary market liquidity and the discount to NAV at which the shares have been trading, are likely to be exacerbated by the recent news relating to Biomass Optimum Fuels Limited and Biomass Premium Fuels Limited. The outcome of the strategic review will be provided in due course.
The board has asked Hadrian’s Wall Capital Limited, the Company’s manager, to look at the possible options for realising value from HWSL’s portfolio. These options might include:
- Sales of individual investment assets, mainly structured as loans and leases;
- Running off the portfolio in accordance with the existing terms of the investments;
- Or a combination of both of the above.
The illiquid nature of the company’s investment assets means it could take some time to realise value from the portfolio. In light of the above, the manager has been instructed not to originate any new investments and to the extent that the company has cash available to it, including as a result of ongoing loan repayments, such cash is expected to be used in the first instance to repay amounts outstanding under the company’s revolving credit facility and to meet any existing undertakings for follow-on funding to existing loans in the portfolio, not currently expected to exceed £4.0m in aggregate. Thereafter the intention would be to return capital to shareholders. HWSL may also consider repurchasing shares at a discount to NAV if appropriate.
We discussed some of the challenges faced by HWSL over its annual results to end-June 2019, earlier in October – click here to read the story.
HWSL: Major announcement from Hadrian’s Wall Secured Investments regarding its future