In QuotedData’s morning briefing 25 March 2024:
- Literacy Capital (BOOK) has announced a new investment in the Live Business Group, a leading international entertainment supplier to the travel, tourism and leisure industry. BOOK has taken what it describes as a significant minority stake in the London-based firm, with the actual terms being undisclosed. BOOK’s investment will support Live’s growth plans, with a continued focus on the quality of their service offering, with Live’s founder-managers retaining their roles in leading the company.
- Schroder British Opportunities Trust (SBO) has announced its quarterly NAV for the period ending 31 December 2023. As of the end of 2023, SBO has a total NAV of £82.9, or 112.2p per share, a 2% increase in per-share NAV over the last quarter, and a 7.25 uplift in total NAV. Of the 7.2%, 5.8% of the total uplift can be attributed to SBO’s public equity sleeve, while its private equity sleeve saw a £1.2m increase in valuation. Within its private equity sleeve, the main contributors were the technology-enabled home care company, Cera Care, and the global leading price reporting agency for non-exchange traded commodities, Mintec. Within its public equity sleeve, the main contributor was the pub operator City Pub Group, which received a take-over bid. City Pub Group also represented the majority of SBO’s £4.5m in realisations it made over the period.
- Helical (HLCL) has exchanged contracts on the sale of the long leasehold interest in 25 Charterhouse Square, London, EC1 to Ares Management for £43.5m. The disposal price represents a 6.5% discount to the 30 September 2023 book value. The 45,000 sq ft, six-storey building is let to a range of companies including marketing agency Anomaly, the FTSE-listed betting and gaming company Entain, and the communications consultancy Hudson Sandler.
- Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF) has issued 9.7m shares at NAV (111p) in part settlement of the purchase of 49% in two of its existing Irish projects (Porterstown and Kilmarnock) alongside the addition of Project Mucklagh, a 75MW asset in the Republic of Ireland. The vendor was Grid System Services Limited (a joint venture between Low Carbon Ltd and Irish Independent Developers), which Gore Street hopes will be a longstanding partner.
- The Norwegian Ministry of Energy has decided that Aquila European Renewables’ (AERI) Rock windfarm will have to introduce some measures to help facilitate reindeer migration. Roads must be kept open for animal transport during seasonal migration, subject to being given advance notice in reasonable time and subject to weather and snow conditions permitting such migration; and the project company may be requested to stop particular single turbines to the extent necessary for ensuring proper migration through the traditional migration path, albeit that no turbine shall be stopped for more than seven days per calendar year. There is no information on the financial impact of this [but it does not sound too onerous to us].