In QuotedData’s morning briefing 15 September 2022, the news is dominated by interim results statements:
- Downing Renewables and Infrastructure (DORE) has made a great start to the year as it reports an NAV of 115.9p at end June 2022 and a total return for the first six months of the year of 14.1%. The portfolio generated 172 GWh of renewable energy during the period, avoiding 80,942 tonnes of CO2e and powering the equivalent of 59,432 UK homes for a year. The European Commission is discussing the imposition of a price cap on energy of €180MWh. The company says that the impact on its revenues would be less than £150,000 or less than 0.01% of NAV. After a busy period for fundraising and investment, including adding onshore wind exposure to the portfolio for the first time, the manager says that it is “progressing a significant pipeline of opportunities across different technologies and sectors, including wind, hydro, solar and utilities in lower price zone areas in Europe, with a view to deploying the remaining capital raised in June.”
- Aquila Energy Efficiency (AEET) says that at 31 August 2022, £54.6m of its IPO proceeds was committed to investments. There is a lag between committing money and actually investing it, however – just £32.1m had been deployed at that date. The board is persevering with its 3.5p dividend target for the year, despite much of this being funded from capital. The board is targeting full deployment by the end of the first quarter of 2023. There will be a continuation vote in February 2023.
- Foresight Solar’s (FSFL) interim results statement notes that solar irradiation in the UK over the first six months of 2022 was ahead of averages. That spells more good news for the UK-focused solar funds.
- Trian Investors 1 (TI1) has published its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022. During the period, TI1’s NAV per share declined by 21.4%. In comparison, TI1 says that the FTSE 100 total shareholder return was -1.0% during the same period. On 2 September 2022, TI1’s Board announced proposals to wind up the Company (click here to see our coverage and thoughts on the wind up proposals), commencing with a redemption of at least 95% of the Company’s shares by 30 June 2023. TI1 continues to hold its investment in Ferguson and, on 31 May 2022, the company announced that it had made a new investment of approximately US$50m (£37.7m) in Unilever (this investment was financed by drawings on the $100m credit facility which was announced on 29 March 2022). However, in light of the winding up proposals, the Board has confirmed that TI1 will make no investments in new target companies. The board will announce further details of the winding up process in due course.
- Regional REIT (RGL) saw EPRA earnings dip slightly in the first half of the year to 2.9p per share (first half of 2021: 3.0p), with rent roll at £72.0m (December 2021: £72.1m). EPRA net tangible assets (NTA) was stable at 97.1p per share (December 2021: 97.2p), while the value of its portfolio was up 1.0% to £918.2m. In the six months to 30 June 2022, the group paid dividends of 3.3p per share (first half of 2021: 3.2p), in line with its target full year dividend of 6.6p. The group’s cost of debt is 3.5%, with 100% fixed and hedged for an average duration of 5.0 years. The net loan to value (NTV) is 43.2%.