In QuotedData’s morning briefing 22 March 2022:
- Schroder British Opportunities (SBO) – managed by Tim Creed and Rory Bateman (pictured) – says that it thinks its portfolio of UK companies with strong growth prospects is a differentiated offer with appeal to all investors who believe in the UK recovery story. It therefore intends to increase the size of the company when it becomes possible to do so.
- Manchester & London (MNL) is paying a 7p special dividend to shareholders in celebration of the 50th anniversary of it being admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange. The trust’s mega-cap growth-oriented portfolio had a tough six months to the end of January 2022 relative to its benchmark (MSCI UK Investable Market Index), returning -6.6% to the benchmark’s +6.2%.
- Axiom European Financial Debt (AXI) returned 16.9% in NAV terms and 15.3% in share price terms over the course of 2021. The dividend was maintained at 6.0p. However, opportunities presented by changing regulation in the EU financials sector – the main focus of the fund – have run their course. The investment objective was tweaked in February to permit the inclusion of hedging strategies. Now, the board and managers are exploring a new investment objective for the fund and expect to make an announcement during the summer.
- Princess Private Equity (PEY) has reported an NAV return of 19.4% for 2021 and a share price return of 29.3%. It continues to pay out 5% of NAV as a dividend. Realisations amounted to €462.5m, including the exits of GlobalLogic, Foncia and Cerba HealthCare, as well as from the sale of a minority stake in International Schools Partnership. Investment activity totalled €342.4m comprising new investments in Foncia II, DiversiTech, International Schools Partnership II, Telepass and Breitling as well as add-on investments in several portfolio companies to finance M&A activity.
- Sirius Real Estate (SRE) intends to convert its UK business to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) from 1 April 2022. The proposed REIT conversion follows the company’s UK acquisition of BizSpace in November 2021. By entering the UK REIT regime, the company will no longer be subject to UK corporation tax on income or gains from its property rental business and will be required to pay 90% or more of its UK property rental business income to shareholders annually.
- Dunedin Enterprise (DNE) has sold its stake in IT services company Incremental for £7.9m, £3.1m more than the last valuation. This adds 23.4p to the NAV.
We also have results from Harworth, European Assets, BioPharma Credit and EPE Special Opportunities, a new investment by Apax, an update from Cordiant Digital and news of a fundraise and dividend policy change from Gore Street Energy Storage