In QuotedData’s morning briefing 3 May 2022:
- BlackRock Energy and Resources Income (BERI) is asking shareholders for permission to issue more shares after an upsurge of interest in the trust meant that it has already issued all the shares that it was given permission to at the last AGM.
- Blackstone Loan Financing (BGLF) generated a return of 21.82% on a published NAV basis (calculated on a mark-to-model basis, where the investments are valued based on their expected returns over their lives rather than based on market prices), and 16.87% on an IFRS NAV basis over the course of 2021. Dividends totalling 8 cents per share were declared, up from 7 cents for the prior year. During 2021, the company repurchased 16,038,629 shares for €12,396,228 at an average discount of 12.57% using available cash with the goal of reducing the discount. As of 27 April 2022, the share price discount to March published NAV was 19.40%. The report says that there was strong demand for CLO liabilities, low CLO funding costs, and a relatively attractive arbitrage. This supported the origination of new CLOs, but also provided the opportunity to refinance or reset existing transactions. Returns were also supported by positive loan market conditions and the absence of defaults.
- Africa Opportunity Fund (AOF) completed 30 months of its three-year asset realisation period at the end of 2021. It made three distributions to shareholders amounting to $32m or 67% of its December 2019 NAV. The board says that 2021 was a respectable year for the fund as its NAV (including redemptions) rose 69% while its share price rose 66%. To provide some basis for comparison, South Africa rose 19%, Nigeria rose 5%, Kenya rose 10%, and Egypt rose 14%. The fund liquidated five investments in their entirety in 2021, of which, Sonatel, Standard Chartered Bank, and Africa Bank’s bonds were the most significant in size.
- Harmony Energy Income (HEIT) says that it is expecting its next NAV to rise by about 17p on the back of revised revenue forecasts and a new investment. It has four projects under construction currently. One of these is running three weeks behind schedule.
- Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust (SLI) has posted a 6.6% NAV total return for the first quarter of 2022, incorporating an uplift in NAV of 5.5% to 106.6p per share and a dividend paid of 1p per share. The NAV increase reflects a 4.4% rise in the value of its portfolio to £521.8m in the first three months of this year.
- Riverstone Credit Opportunities Income (RCOI) says its Project Mariners loan has been refinanced. On 11 July 2019, the trust contributed $14.9m of a $140.0m first lien term loan for a privately-held company that provides vessel and logistic services including cargo handling and towing, as well as tugboat, ship assist, and escort services predominantly focused on the energy sector. On 28 April 2022, the company fully refinanced this loan with a new source of financing, resulting in a 14.5% realised IRR and 1.34x realised MOIC for the fund.
- Foresight Sustainable Forestry (FSF) says its NAV is now 104.2p (as at 31 March 2022), up from 98.1p at IPO. The afforestation assets delivered a gain of 18% during the period, with demand for afforestation and the associated voluntary carbon credits particularly strong. See our interview with Rob Guest for more background on this.
We also have results from Aurora, BlackRock Smaller Companies and Weiss Korea