In QuotedData’s morning briefing 18 May 2023:
- JLEN Environmental Assets (JLEN) NAV at end March 2023 slipped very marginally (0.4p) from the level at end December. Falling near-term power prices, which have affected other renewable energy funds, are less impactful on JLEN, which has a high degree of protection from short term price hedges as well as revenues from subsidies and long-term contracts that are not derived from power prices. The board feels comfortable targeting a 7.57p dividend for the new accounting year that started on 1 April, a 6% uplift on the prior year.
- Aquila European Renewables (AERI) says 771,695 ordinary shares have been bought for the investment adviser to settle its fee for the first quarter of 2023. The shares were bought at an average price of €0.988571. Aquila Capital Investmentgesellschaft mbH now holds 8,959,109 shares or 2.3% of the company.
- Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure (EGL) says its NAV return for the six months ended 31 March 2023 was 3.7% (MSCI World Utilities +0.6%, S&P Global Infrastructure +3.8%). Its dividends are running at an annualised rate of 7.8p per share, up 8.3% on the previous year. Investors seem happy, with 2.4m shares issued during the period and another 1.9m shares since.
- Literacy Capital (BOOK) has taken a significant minority stake in Cubo, which it describes as a leading high-end flexible office provider. Cubo was founded in 2020 by property investors Marc and Rebecca Brough. It has established itself as the UK’s fastest growing provider of bespoke, high-end flex office and co-working space in the Midlands and Yorkshire, with sites in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield and Derby. Earlier this year, Cubo announced plans to almost double its footprint by the end of 2023. New workspaces in Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh are set to open in the coming months with sites in other leading regional towns and cities in the pipeline. The investment from Literacy Capital will support Cubo’s expansion plans. Literacy Capital says that these come at a time where the flex office market is experiencing unprecedented growth, with demand for serviced space growing by 25% in 2022 alone.
- Grainger (GRI) has welcomed the publication of the Rent Reform Bill, which is aimed at improving and raising standards within the UK private rental market. It says tenants need a better supplied rental market, with more professional, long-term and institutional-investor landlords, providing better quality, mid-market priced homes. Grainger notes that rents can still be set in line with the open market. It welcomes the abolition of ‘no fault’ evictions alongside a commitment to court reform and strengthening landlord’s ability to swiftly manage problem tenants.
- Conygar (CIC) has approval for the next phase of The Island Quarter development in Nottingham. The application comprises a 23,123 sq.m. (249,000 sq.ft.) bioscience building, which includes both laboratory and office space.
- Sherborne Investors C (SIGC) says that “following the distribution to the company of any proceeds from the company’s indirect investment in Navient Corp., the investment manager does not intend to seek to recall any funds for further investment”, which we interpret to mean that the fund will wind up once it has finished doing whatever it is doing with its Navient stake.
We also have two corporate actions from AVI Japan Opportunity, news on abrdn Latin American Income‘s winding up, a fundraise by Gresham House Energy Storage, half-year figures from Tritax Eurobox, and a plan to merge abrdn Japan with Nippon Active Value.