In QuotedData’s morning briefing 1 April 2021 – no April Fools, we promise:
- UK Commercial Property REIT (UKCM) has sold its Kew Retail Park asset in London to a leading UK housebuilder for £41m. The sale price is marginally below the end 2020 book value. Of the complete 10 acre retail park, the trust owned 4.7 acres comprising 61,765 sq ft of gross lettable area across five units which are fully let on short leases to a range of tenants including Boots, Sports Direct, Gap and TK Maxx. This deal helps lower the trust’s exposure to the retail sector while freeing up cash for more attractive areas.
- Greencoat Renewables (GRP) has bought Glencarbry wind farm from John Laing Group. Glencarbry is located in County Tipperary, Ireland and consists of 12 Nordex turbines that have been operational since July 2017. The wind farm’s revenues are contracted under the REFIT 2 scheme, providing a long-term guaranteed minimum floor price for the electricity generated until July 2032. Nordex will continue to manage the operations and maintenance contract. The deal takes the portfolio’s generating capacity to 685.6MW and increases gearing to 49% of gross assets (the deal is being funded with debt).
- Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9) has completed its acquisition of 100% of Aqua Comms (the sub-sea cable company), paying £160m. Following this, the manager expects that the 6p first year dividend will be over 100% cash covered, with the first dividend of 1.5p to be paid in respect of the quarter ending 30 June 2021. The deal structure means that Aqua Ventures Limited and Black Forest Funding (Ireland) Designated Activity Company have been issued a total of 32,988,339 shares in Digital Infrastructure, at an issue price of 100p per share, in part and full payment, respectively.
- Lucy Macdonald, ex-manager of Brunner (BUT), has become a non-executive director of JPMorgan Global Emerging Markets Income (JEMI).
- Duke Royalty has raised £32m from an oversubscribed placing of 91,428,573 shares at 35p per share. A PrimaryBid offer remains open until 6 April.
- EJF Investments (EJFI) results for 2020 show NAV returns of -7.0%, the shares trading on a 28.7% discount at end December, and dividends of 10.7p (in line with target). Since the end of the year it has taken off most of its foreign currency hedges – only the final sterling capital entitlements of the 2022 and 2025 zero dividend preference shares remain hedged. The total return for the year ended 31 December 2020 was predominantly driven by losses incurred from pre-emptively removing currency hedging contracts and reductions in the valuations of certain investments when the pandemic took hold.
We also have results from Henderson High Income and Nippon Active Value, a first quarter update for BB Biotech, corporate news from Hipgnosis and Third Point Investors, purchases by Aquila European, 3i Infrastructure, Tritax Eurobox and Stenprop, and Irish Residential Properties REIT internalising its management team.