River and Mercantile Micro Cap will hand back cash – The board of River and Mercantile UK Micro Cap intends to undertake a compulsory redemption of the trust’s redeemable ordinary shares. The trust’s redemption mechanism is used periodically to return capital to shareholders so as to return the company’s net asset value to around £100m (in accordance with the policy in the original prospectus). At this level of NAV the board believes the that the company is best able to exploit fully the underlying investment opportunity available in AIM listed stocks.
Following a period of strong performance under the stewardship of George Ensor, the NAV has grown to approximately £117m. Accordingly, approximately £15m is to be returned to shareholders at a price based on the NAV as at close of business on 15 January 2021 (253.36p). Accordingly, after deduction for expenses, the amount to be paid to shareholders for each redeemed share is 253.35p.
It is expected that payments of redemption monies will be effected either through CREST (in the case of shares held in uncertificated form) or by cheque (in the case of shares held in certificated form) by 5 February 2021.
The redemption is being effected pro rata to holdings of shares on the register at the close of business on 29 January 2021. Approximately 12.75% of the shares in issue will be redeemed and cancelled.
Prior to the redemption the company has 46,445,043 shares in issue. All of the shares redeemed will be cancelled. No fractions of shares will be redeemed and so the number of shares to be redeemed for each shareholder will be rounded down to the nearest whole number of shares.
Andrew Chapman, chairman, said: “The trust has performed extremely strongly over the last several months. The portfolio manager’s steadfast focus on the strategy and belief in the growth potential of the UK Micro Cap sector during this period has delivered for our investors. This is the fourth time since the Company’s launch in December 2014 that we have been able to effect a redemption at NAV to enhance the returns for our investors. This is tangible evidence that we are continuing to deliver on our promises and we look forward to continued strong performance.”
RMMC : River and Mercantile Micro Cap will hand back cash