In QuotedData’s morning briefing 29 July 2022:
- HICL Infrastructure (HICL) has announced that it has activated a £330m accordion option within its revolving credit facility (RCF), thereby increasing its overall short-term credit facilities to £730m. The £330m accordion is a one-year facility expiring on 28 July 2023 and is priced on the same terms as the Company’s existing RCF. It is a Sustainability-Linked Loan, incorporating defined sustainability targets where HICL incurs a premium or reduction to the interest charged on the drawings based on performance against Environmental, Social and Governance KPIs. As a result, the margin on the accordion will vary between 162bps and 168bps over SONIA. The increased overall funding capacity will be used to support the immediate pipeline of acquisition opportunities.
- Pershing Square Holdings (PSH) has announced an additional share buyback program for US$200m of PSH’s outstanding Public Shares on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam. As of 28 July 2022, PSH had completed 87.9% of the previously announced US$100m share buyback program, which commenced on 11 May 2022. The new program will commence once the existing US$100m program has been exhausted. PSH says that the larger size of the new program is intended to reduce the risk that it is exhausted during a period when there are trading window restrictions on new authorisations. The Program is expected to be accretive to NAV per share and will reduce PSH’s capital.
- Tetragon Financial Group (TFG) has published its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022. During the period, which the report describes as one of a stressed market environment, TFG’s portfolio experienced an investment return on equity (RoE) of -5.0% and a NAV per share total return of -3.5%. The report says that losses led by “other equities and credit” and private equity in asset management companies outweighed positive returns from bank loans, private equity, real estate and legal assets.
- Law Debenture (LWDB) has published its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022. The report describes LWDB’s performance as one of “Resilience, continued outperformance and dividend growth against the backdrop of turbulent global markets”. LWDB declared a first interim dividend of 7.25 pence per ordinary share, paid in July 2022, representing an increase of 5.5% over the prior year’s first interim dividend, and the board intends that each of the first three interim dividends for 2022 to be equivalent to a quarter of Law Debenture’s total 2021 dividend of 29.0 pence per share. Performance and growth in Independent Professional Services business (IPS) continues to support the Board’s intention to maintain or increase the total dividend in 2022. Highlights for the group are as follows:
- NAV total return with debt and Independent Professional Services (IPS) at FV for H1 2022 of -4.0%
- Another period of strong performance from IPS with profit before tax up by 5.9% and valuation up 4.9% to £178.4m
- The Group has issued 3.81 million new ordinary shares at a premium to NAV, to existing and new investors, with net proceeds of £30.4m to support ongoing investment
- Continued low ongoing charges of 0.482%, compared to the industry average of 1.093%
- Winner of Investment Week’s UK Income Sector Investment Trust of the year for 2021
- Warehouse REIT (WHR) has secured planning permission for 1,020,000 sq ft of warehousing at its flagship logistics park development at Radway Green. The final phase of the scheme will see the company develop five units ranging from 90,000 sq ft to 400,000 sq ft. The 102-acre site, which is located less than 1.5 miles from J16 of the M6 motorway, also has planning consent for a further 803,000 sq ft of warehouse space across six units, ranging from 22,000 sq ft to 340,000 sq ft. Earlier this year Warehouse REIT entered into a development agreement with Panattoni, one of the largest logistics real estate developers in Europe, who will be responsible for delivering the 1.8 million sq ft scheme with Warehouse REIT funding and retaining the completed scheme.
- In a trading update for the quarter to 30 June 2022, Industrials REIT (MLI) reported an average rental increase of 27% across 89 deals (last quarter: 22% across 86 deals) as demand for industrial space continued to outstrip supply. A total of 62 lease renewals (30% above previous rent) and 27 new lettings (23% above previous rent) were completed totalling £2.1m of rent. This was the seventh successive quarter of 20%-plus average uplifts, the group said. A further 11 lettings exchanged during the quarter and there were another 81 transactions under offer.
We also have JPMorgan Russian’s interim results and its proposals to shift its focus to Emerging Europe, the Middle East and Africa.