In QuotedData’s morning briefing 26 February 2021:
- Pacific Horizon is asking shareholders for permission to issue more stock. It has issued a circular for a general meeting that is to be held on 22 March 2021 in which it will put forward three resolutions:
- to ask for the authority to allot up to 20 per cent. of the aggregate nominal value of the issued share capital of the Company as at 24 February 2021 (as an ordinary resolution)
- to ask for the authority to disapply rights of pre-emption in respect of the issue of up to 10 per cent. of the aggregate nominal value of the issued share capital of the Company as at 24 February 2021 (the first special resolution)
- to ask for the authority to disapply rights of pre-emption in respect of the issue of up to 10 per cent. of the aggregate nominal value of the issued share capital of the Company as at 24 February 2021 (the second special resolution, which is effectively a repeat of the first).
[QD comment: These measures have come about as Pacific Horizon has performed very strongly and is seeing strong demand for its shares. You can find out more by reading our most recent note on the company – click here.]
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Hipgnosis Songs Fund (SONG) has announced that Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin” has this week hit the one billion stream landmark on Spotify. SONG says that ‘Don’t Stop Believin” is only the second classic record to ever achieve this milestone, alongside Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. This follows ‘Don’t Stop Believin”, parodied by LadBaby, becoming the 2020 UK Christmas Number 1, the first time it reached the top spot since its release in 1981. Hipgnosis co-owns ‘Don’t Stop Believin” as a result of its interest in the Neal Schon, Jonathan Cain and Journey catalogues.
[QD comment: this is good news for SONG, although in part it does appear to be a case of being in the right place at the right time. Click here to see LadBaby’s parody – Don’t stop me eating. Once again, it’s all about the sausage rolls.]
- CQS New City High Yield Fund (NCYF) has announced its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2020. Its chair, Caroline Hitch, says that the period has seen a welcome recovery from last March and April’s Covid-19 market dislocation. NCYF has provided a net asset value total return of 8.83% for the period and, thanks to an increase in the share price premium, a share price total return of 15.39%. NCYF had a dividend yield of 8.57% at its year end – based on dividends at an annualised rate of 4.46 pence and a share price of 52.00 pence at 31 December 2020.
- Gulf Investment Fund (GIF) has published its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2020. It has provided the following key highlights:
- Net asset value increased by 22 per cent vs. benchmark increase of 17 per cent.
- Share price up by 17.5 per cent.
- Final dividend of 3c a share to be paid on 5 March 2021.
- GIF share price trading at 10.9 per cent discount to NAV vs. the five-year average discount of 13.1 per cent.
- Miton UK Microcap (MINI) has secured a new £5.0m revolving credit facility (RCF) from The Royal Bank of Scotland International Limited. The RCF has an initial term of three years, incurs interest at a margin of 1.35% above LIBOR (later SONIA) and has an uncommitted accordion of £7.5m. The RCF replaces the previous RBS facility, which had been in place since February 2018. MINI is currently ungeared but is permitted to use borrowing with a view to enhancing long-term capital growth.
- European Opportunities Trust has announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 November 2020, during which it significantly underperformed its benchmark. Over the six months to 30 November 2020 the total return on the NAV per share was -4.3%, while the share price total return was -3.0%. Both of these performances were behind the total return on the Company’s primary benchmark, the MSCI Europe Index, of +11.1%. Andrew Sutch, the trust’s chairman, says that the trust’s performance was particularly undermined by its former exposure to Wirecard AG.
- Further to its announcement on 7 January 2021, The Schiehallion Fund has now published a circular, relating to a proposal to disapply pre-emption rights, to allow the company to proceed with its proposed C Shares issue. This ‘Secondary Raise’ is targeted to be in excess of US$500 million and an EGM is being convened on 18 March 2021 to seek the necessary shareholder approvals.
- JPMorgan Mid Cap has announced its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2020. During the period, the trust provided an NAV total return of +25.7% which compares to the +22.1% return from its 250 Index benchmark. The trust’s share price discount to net asset value narrowed from 11.5% at 30th June to 7.5% at 31st December 2020 resulting in a share price total return of +31.9%. The chairman, John Evans, says that its impressive recovery has been driven by a variety of factors but in particular stock markets worldwide were boosted by better than expected results from COVID-19 vaccine trials and subsequent roll-outs, especially in the UK and USA. The UK equity market also benefited from the certainty created by the Brexit deal agreed in December 2020, thus avoiding a no deal scenario.
We also have results from Tetragon Financial, which had a mixed year; results from Law Debenture whose share price strongly outperformed its benchmark; and results from CC Japan Growth and Income – the timing of its year end has been unhelpful, but its focus on income, rather than growth has hurt performance; and results for Mobius Investment trust – it has performed strongly during its second year of operations, benefitting from deploying a significant cash balance at the bottom of the market.