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QuotedData’s morning briefing 5 May 2021

In QuotedData’s morning briefing 5 May 2021 –

  • JLEN Environmental Assets (JLEN) announced a proposed placing for up to approximately 54.7m new ordinary shares. The shares are not being offered at a fixed price, but at a placing price per share, which will be determined by the bookbuild.  The placing price will be agreed between JLEN, the investment adviser and Winterflood Securities following the close of the bookbuild. Since JLEN raised £57m in February 2020 to repay amounts drawn under its revolving credit facility, it has continued to make investments across a range of environmental infrastructure sectors, including first investments into grid-scale stand-alone battery storage and low carbon transport. The facility is currently £82m drawn. The net proceeds of the placing will be used to pay down amounts outstanding under the facility and as part of an identified pipeline of near term opportunities, including further investments into operational bio-energy assets and battery storage opportunities.
  • Schroder Oriental Income (SOI) reported interim results to 28 February 2021, with the NAV returning 20.6% in total return terms. The manager’s report noted: “Sector returns across the region reflected the rotation in the markets that has been seen globally and was particularly marked from November following the vaccine news and hopes for more fiscal stimulus following the US election, which raised expectations for a stronger global recovery. Defensive bond like names in sectors such as utilities, consumer staples and health care lagged as growth expectations picked up and rising long bond yields impacted valuations. The spread of returns across the regional markets continued to be high with technology-heavy Korea and Taiwan both up over 30% for the period, benefiting from upward earnings revisions driven by ongoing strong export demand for semiconductors and technology products. Looking at dividends more broadly, there is still a lot of uncertainty as to where near term payments will go given the path of COVID which has unsurprisingly meant caution from some companies, particularly those most reliant on pandemic-related restrictions being eased. Still, despite this, we are expecting earnings to pick up this year which should provide a more supportive backdrop for dividends and potential increases, albeit the timing around increases remains COVID dependent with the uncertainty resulting in a potential lag between any recovery in earnings and that of dividends.”
  • Schroder UK Public Private (SUPP) noted that one of its portfolio companies, Kuur Therapeutics, described as the leading developer of off-the-shelf CAR-NKT cell immunotherapies for the treatment of solid and haematological malignancies, announced its acquisition by Athenex, a global biopharmaceutical company. Athenex has acquired Kuur for an upfront payment of $70m, comprised of equity in Athenex common stock. SUPP also announced that Inivata, a leader in liquid biopsy, has announced its acquisition by NeoGenomics, a leading provider of cancer-focused genetic testing services and global oncology contract research services. The acquisition followed a $25m minority equity investment by NeoGenomics in Inivata in May 2020, at which time NeoGenomics was granted a fixed price option to purchase the remainder of Inivata for $390m.
  • Baillie Gifford China Growth (BGCG) is also looking to raise new money, with a proposed placing of up to 5,779,383 new ordinary shares of 25p, representing approximately 10% of the company’s issued share capital, as at 24 February 2021.
  • AEW UK REIT (AEWU) has acquired Arrow Point Retail Park in Shrewsbury for £8.35m. The established retail park is located on a busy commercial estate and is . The purchase price of the fully let retail park reflects a low capital value of £88 per square foot and a net initial yield of 8.7%.
  • Tritax Big Box REIT (BBOX) reported a positive trading update for the first quarter of 2021. A total of 37% of its portfolio is due for a rent review this year and so far BBOX has completed a third of these adding £3.1m to its annual rent. During the first quarter of the year, the group has completed two developments, in Bicester (let to DPD) and Biggleswade (let to Co-op), adding £5.5m to annual rent. It said 99.8% of rent for 2020 has been collected, with full collection expected in the summer. 98% of first quarter 2021 rent and 95% of second quarter rent has so far been collected, which is expected to increase to 99% by the end of June.

We also have a new catalogue investment by Hipgnosis and dividend hikes by Alternative Income REIT and UK Commercial Property REIT.

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