In QuotedData’s morning briefing 2 December 2020:
- BlackRock Throgmorton (THRG) has published a circular and issued a notice of a general meeting meeting to be held on 18 December 2020. The trust has been very successful in issuing shares since the authority was last given to the board to do so at the company’s AGM on 25 March 2020 (over 7.4m shares have been issued at a premium raising over £43m of new capital). This means that the board’s existing authority to issue shares on a pre-emptive basis has now been largely utilised and in order to provide liquidity, and to ensure that it can manage the premium to NAV at which its Ordinary Shares may trade, in line with its discount/premium control policy, the board is asking shareholders for permission to issue another 10%. [QD comment: THRG is clearly in demand and we welcome this new issuance, at a premium to NAV, as is NAV accretive to existing shareholders, improves liquidity in the trust’s shares and should, all things being equal, lower THRG’s ongoing charges ratio by spreading its fixed costs over a wider asset base.]
- Seneca Global Income & Growth (SIGT) has published its interim results for the six months ended 31 October 2020. During the period, it provided NAV and share price total returns of 10.5% and 10.6%, ahead of its CPI+6% benchmark, which returned 3.6%. The quarterly dividend rate remains unchanged at 1.68p per share and the board has reiterated its intention, barring unforeseen circumstances, to at least maintain the quarterly rate of 1.68p per share for the full year to 30 April 2021 (suggesting a minimum total dividend of 6.72p per share). The period saw SIGT issue nil shares under its DCM, but buybacks totalled £11.1m. This is a huge amount for a trust of SIGT’s size, buts its board says that it is resolute in its application of the DCM – both to protect Shareholders against the share price trading at a material discount to its NAV and to provide Shareholders with liquidity. SIGT bought back 7.9m shares under the DCM during the period, which marginally exceeds the net 7.8m shares it has issued under the DCM since it was put in place in August 2016. We have recently published a note on SIGT – Knit one, purl one – on 16 October 2020. Click here to read the note.
- Separately to its interim results announcement, Seneca Global Income & Growth Trust (SIGT), has also published a circular and is convening a general meeting (to be held on 22 December). Unfortunately, SIGT is in the opposite position to BlackRock Throgmorton noted above, as, following its strong commitment to meet its obligations under its DCM, SIGT has now exhausted much of its existing repurchase authority. At the general meeting, SIGT’s board are asking shareholders to approve a special resolution to allow the board to buy back up to a maximum of 5,856,645 ordinary shares which represents approximately 14.99 per cent. of SIGT’s issued share capital.
- Augmentum Fintech (AUGM) has released its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2020. During the period, AUGM’s NAV per share increased by 2.8% to 119.3 pence (31 March 2020: 116.1 pence). The period also saw AUGM included in both the FTSE Small Cap Index and FTSE All Share Index in June. AUGM also made follow-on investments into seven of its portfolio companies totalling £5.1 million. Furthermore, since the period end, AUGM has raised £27.5 million through an oversubscribed placing and retail offer.
- TwentyFour Income Fund (TFIF) has published its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2020. The NAV per share rose from 94.19 at the start of the period to 108.20, for a total return of 18.02% (including dividends paid) during the period. TFIF declared two dividends of 1.9p and 1.5p per share during the period, which cover its pro-rata minimum return of 6p per share. After the period end, the Company declared a further dividend of 1.5p per share which was paid at the end of October in line with its existing dividend policy.
We also have annual results from Residential Secure Income.