In QuotedData’s morning briefing 8 February 2021 –
- Gabelli Value Plus+ (GVP) announced that it intends to convene a general meeting in July 2021 to consider a continuation vote resolution followed by a special resolution to place the company in members’ voluntary liquidation. GVP’s largest shareholder, Associated Capital Group, has irrevocably undertaken to abstain from voting on these resolutions. GVP has undertaken not to put proposals to shareholders for a tender offer or other return of capital prior to the date of the general meeting. GVP’s board intends to include further details of the proposed continuation vote and liquidation in a circular that will be sent to shareholders in June 2021. [This will come as a great relief to GVP shareholders, it is just a shame that they have had to wait so long for what always looked to us like an inevitable outcome.]
- The board of Strategic Equity Capital (SEC) received a request to convene a general meeting of the company from two of its shareholders, Ian Armitage and Jonathan Morgan, representing 7.66% of the company’s issued share capital. The proposed resolutions relate to the continuation of the company. SEC’s board and its advisers are reviewing the request and intend to speak to Mr Armitage and Mr Morgan. [This is a real surprise, Ian Armitage is the ex-CEO and chairman of Hg. He is also the chairman of Odyssean, which is the competing fund that was established for Stuart Widdowson, the former manager of Strategic Equity Capital. Jonathan Morgan was involved with the management of the fund while it was managed by GVQ.]
- Invesco Perpetual Select reported interim results to 30 November 2020. Total NAV returns were as follows: The managed liquidity share portfolio (IVPM) delivered a total NAV return of 1.0%; the UK equity share portfolio (IVPU) delivered 10.9%; the global equity income share portfolio (IVPG) delivered 16.1%, and the balanced risk allocation share portfolio (IVPB ) delivered 14.1%.
- Separately, the board of Invesco Income Growth said that, following the merger with Invesco Perpetual Select, Ciaran Mallon and James Goldstone will be joint managers of the combined company. [James recently lost his role as manager of Keystone when that decided to move to Baillie Gifford.]
- Life sciences-focused RTW Venture (RTW) made a note of the announcement by one of its portfolio companies, Immunocore, on 5 February 2021, of its pricing of an upsized $258.3m IPO and admission to trading on NASDAQ global market. Immunocore is a UK-based late-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a novel class of T-cell receptor bispecific immunotherapies designed to treat a broad range of diseases, including cancer, infectious and autoimmune disease. Immunocore has been a part of RTW’s portfolio since its launch on 30 October 2019. [This is also one of the largest positions in Schroder UK Public Private Trust. It says that, at the IPO price, it will see a 23% uplift in the value of the position, adding £2.9m to the NAV].
- Hipgnosis (SONG) raised £75m through a placing. Merck Mercuriadis, the founder of SONG and The Family (Music) Limited (SONG’s manager), said: “That momentum continues, and 2021 is off to our strongest start ever, with some of the most important catalogue acquisitions we have made to date being announced. The new prospectus underpins our plans for marketing into new audiences and fundraising for the rest of the year and I’m delighted with the excellent first step we have made with a successful raise of £75 million, over USD$100 million. Once again, I am incredibly appreciative of the support from both our existing and new shareholders and equally the incredible songwriters who have entrusted us with their iconic songs. We look forward to investing further into our pipeline of proven and culturally important songs and actively managing these incredible songs to enhance their legacy and maximise income as we seek to provide exceptional risk-adjusted returns for shareholders. To top it off we have both the Number 1 and Number 2 airplay songs in the UK this week with Miley Cyrus featuring Dua Lipa and Justin Bieber respectively, both written by our songwriter Stefan Johnson.” [We said in a recent news show that Hipgnosis’s significant additional fundraising plans (hoping to more than double the size of the company over the next year or so), coupled with the recent (foreign exchange related) fall in the NAV, might cause some indigestion. £75m is not bad but we suspect it might be less than the company was after. By Morningstar’s reckoning, the shares are now trading at a discount to NAV.]