In QuotedData’s morning briefing 21 March 2024:
- Gulf Investment Fund (GIF) is holding its regular 100% tender offer. Shareholders holding shares at the close of markets on 26 March have until 1pm on 11 April to say if they want to tender their shares. Provided that the fund won’t shrink too much (less than 38m shares), a tender pool will be created, its assets liquidated, and once that process is complete the tender price will be announced and the cash proceeds distributed. [We think that this regular 100% tender offer is at the extreme end of discount control measures, and to be honest probably goes too far. The fund is trading at a 3.7% discount so we’d like to think that the take up for this would be minimal. Relative to its benchmark index, the fund is one of the best-performing of all investment companies. It deserves to grow rather than shrink.]
- Harmony Energy Income (HEIT) says that the parent company of its manager has pledged its stake in the trust (plus interest in over 700MW of pipeline battery energy storage development projects) against a £10m loan from Triodos Bank UK Limited. If the bank ends up owning the shares, it has agreed not to sell any of them before 10 November 2027 except through the trust’s broker(s) and then only following reasonable consultation with the company and its broker(s). [This highlights the cashflow crisis that the battery energy storage sector is suffering in the UK].
- NewRiver REIT (NRR) has appointed Lynn Fordham as chair designate. She will succeed Baroness Ford OBE as non-executive chair of the board on 30 May 2024. Fordham has extensive board level experience gained as an executive director and non-executive director of listed companies. She is currently non-executive director and of NCC Group plc, Caledonia Investments plc, Domino’s Pizza Group plc and Enfinium Group Ltd. Her most recent executive career was as managing partner of Larchpoint Capital LLP and chief executive of SVG Capital plc, the former FTSE 250 listed private equity investment vehicle. She has also held senior finance roles at Barratt Developments Plc, BAA Plc and Boots Plc.