In QuotedData’s morning briefing 25 November 2022:
- Following shareholder approval of its new investment objective and policy, JPMorgan Russian Securities Plc has changed its name to JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa Securities Plc. The trust’s stock ticker is changing from JRS to JEMA with effect from 8.00am on 25 November 2022, although the ISIN, SEDOL and LEI remain unchanged. The Company’s website address will shortly be renamed and details will be provided in due course. Shareholders are advised that they are unaffected by the change of name and existing share certificates should be retained and will remain valid.
- Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9) has announced that its investment manager has purchased 566,893 ordinary shares in DGI9 at an average price of 88.2 pence per share on 23 November 2022. This purchase was made by Perihelion One Limited, a company in the Triple Point Group. DGI9’s directors Phil Jordan, Keith Mansfield, and Aaron Le Cornu have also purchased shares in the Company.The Investment Manager, including senior members of the Digital Infrastructure team and partners, now holds a total of 1,917,304 Ordinary Shares in DGI9, representing approximately 0.22% of the total issued share capital. [QD comment: These share purchases appear to be a co-ordinated attempt to shore up confidence in DGI9 and halt the slide in the company’s share price following the announcement the company’s portfolio managers have left Triple Point (click here to see our coverage of this). We are pleased to see the board and manager putting their weight behind the fund at this difficult time. We are are also pleased to see the board and manger making investments in the fund as it helps to align their interests with external shareholders. This is generally considered to be positive from a corporate governance perspective. The caveat to this is that boards and managers should commit to not using their shareholdings to override the will of external shareholders although with just a 0.22% stake, this is a null point at this stage.]
- The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) has announced that it is cancelling its scrip dividend in respect of its third quarter dividend. The Board has taken this decision on the basis that the reference price for the scrip would be below TRIG’s NAV. It says that shareholders will be paid their dividend in cash and, should they so wish, can choose to apply the cash dividend in acquiring shares in the secondary market. [QD comment: Although this might be a little frustrating for regular re-investors in the fund, this is a good decision by the board. If the company had proceeded with the scrip and issued some shares at a price below NAV, this would have the effect of diluting the NAV that would have seen a small transfer of wealth from those that did not elect to take the scrip to those that did. While the amounts involved would have been relatively small, the guiding principle here is that all shareholders should be treated equally. As the board correctly points out, shareholders can still use the cash they will receive to make secondary purchases if they. Any such purchases should help narrow the discount at the margin to the benefit of all.]
We also have two new co-investments for ICG Enterprise.