- Castelnau Group (CGL) announced the appointment of Richard Brown as non-executive director of the company and chief executive officer of Castelnau Group. A former investment banker, Richard has over 14 years of corporate finance experience. He has advised firms ranging from the largest FTSE 100 companies to private businesses, UK-focused as well as international. The company also announced its interim results for the period ended 30 June 2023. The share price return was 9.4% and the NAV total return for the period was -6.4%, versus the benchmark FTSE All-Share Total Return Index of +2.6%, which equates to a -9.0% relative underperformance of the NAV. The main contributors to the underperformance were Hornby Plc and Cambium International Ltd. Hornby represents 6.0% of the portfolio and had a -36.8% price movement. Cambium represents 5.4% of the portfolio and had a -27.1% price movement.
- RTW Biotech Opportunities (RTW) has announced that its largest portfolio company position, Rocket Pharmaceuticals, which makes up over 10% of the fund, has reached alignment with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the trial design for its global Phase 2 pivotal trial of RP-A501 for danon disease which will evaluate the efficacy and safety of RP-A501 in 12 patients with Danon. Roderick Wong, MD, managing partner and chief investment officer of RTW said: “This is a significant milestone for Rocket and for patients with Danon Disease and puts us a step closer to a potential therapy for an otherwise incurable disease.” After an increase of +38.8% in the share price on 13 September, the estimated uptick to the 31 August NAV is expected to be approximately 3.9%.
- Foresight Solar (FSFL) announced its results for the six months ended 30 June 2023. NAV fell 6% while shares fell 18% as rising rates weighed on returns.
- abrdn Smaller Companies (ASCI) has announced its results for the six months ended 30 June 2023. NAV fell 0.7% compared the benchmark Numis Smaller Companies ex Inv Trust Index which rose 1.4%. Shares rose 8.1% with the discount narrowing to 9.3%. This follows an announcement earlier in the year where the company’s board agreed to combination of assets with Shires Income.
- BH Macro (BHMU) has announced its interim report for the period ended June 30 2023. NAV fell by 6% while shares fell 20%. The current discount for the fund is around 10%.
- Balanced Commercial Property Trust (BCPT) says that it intends to up its dividend by 10%. It will pay a monthly dividend of 0.44p (5.28p annualised versus 4.8p perviously) from October 2023. Dividend cover by earnings for the six months to 30 June 2023 was 117.6%. In half year results to 30 June 2023, the company saw its NAV drop 1.2% to 117.1p per share, equating to a NAV total return for the period of 0.8%. The portfolio fell by 1.5% to £1,067m.
- BCPT also announced the signing of a new two-year debt facility with Barclays and HSBC. The new debt facility has been structured with two tranches, being a £60m revolving credit facility (RCF) and a committed £260m term loan (which can only be drawn to refinance the group’s existing £260m loan with L&G that expires in December 2024). The new facility is for an initial two-year term that has two one-year extension options and can be repaid at any time. The company says that the new debt facility enables it to retain the competitively priced L&G loan, which is fixed at 3.32% up to maturity, and removes near term refinancing risk. The new debt facility has a headline interest margin of 180bps. The group’s current £50m facility with Barclays (which expires in July 2024) will be repaid, in full, and cancelled on 14 September 2023, with £30m of the new RCF tranche being drawn down on the same date.
We also have news from VietNam Holding, Ecofin US Renewables and LondonMetric