In QuotedData’s morning briefing 14 November 2024:

• BlackRock Sustainable American Income Trust (BRSA) is changing its name to avoid any issues with the FCA’s new Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) which come into effect on 2 December 2024. The company will still seek to deliver a superior ESG outcome when selecting investments, but will remove the word “sustainable” from its name and investment objective. Under SDR, the company will become an “unlabelled ESG fund”. The company’s name will change to the “BlackRock American Income Trust plc” with immediate effect. The ticker will also change from “BRSA” to “BRAI”. The investment objective will be modified to: “The company’s investment objective is to provide an attractive level of income together with capital appreciation over the long term, whilst incorporating the ESG commitments described in the company’s investment policy.”
• Syncona (SYNC) is providing a £12.5m commitment to fund a new 100% owned portfolio company Slingshot Therapeutics. Slingshot aims to be an “Accelerator”, accumulating and developing a pipeline of early-stage programmes identified from academia. The initial tranche drawn down is £5.6m. There are set up costs and running costs to cover but money has also been put towards Slingshot’s first programme, Apini (SSTX-001), a small molecule programme focused on inflammatory disease, identified from the University of Manchester. Syncona has also been selling down its stake in Autolus, selling a 14% of its stake in the company for $21.2m [it seemed odd that the Autolus share price was weak despite that company’s recent success in launching AUCATZYL – obe-cel, but the sales imply a value for the remainder of its stake of about $130m, which compares to a valuation in the NAV of $96m.]
• Assura Group (AGR) reported a static EPRA net tangible assets (NTA) 49.4p over the six months to 30 September (March 2024: 49.3p). The value of its portfolio of primary healthcare properties increased to £3.1bn following a large portfolio acquisition in the period. Passing rent roll increased 19% to £179.1m (March 2024: £150.6m) with net rental income up 8% to £76.7m. EPRA earnings were up 4% to £52.7m or 1.7p per share (September 2023: 1.7p). The company’s quarterly dividend increased 2.4% to 0.84p.
• Shareholders of both NewRiver REIT (NRR) and Capital & Regional (CAL) voted in favour of the merger of the two companies yesterday.