CT Global Managed Portfolio cuts its management fee to boost marketing ahead of the retirement of fund manager Peter Hewitt, and activists raise their stakes in Schroder British Opportunities and Gore Street Energy Storage.
CT Global Managed Portfolio Trust, which has separate growth (CMPG) and income (CMPI) portfolios, has negotiated a £135,000 cut in its annual management fee with fund manager Columbia Threadneedle. From September the investment trust will pay 0.6% of net asset value excluding borrowing, rather than 0.65% of total assets including borrowing. In addition there will no longer be any charge on investments in other funds run by the manager. The board will use the saving to boost marketing of the £150m investment trust whose long-standing fund manager, Peter Hewitt, is retiring in October.
Activist investor Staude Capital has lifted its position in Schroder British Opportunities (SBO) to 6.2% from 5.2%. The £54m listed growth capital fund announced in March a proposal to focus its investments entirely on private equity, up from the current 75% but has said no more since. The shares trail net asset value on a 35% discount.
RM Funds, the Edinburgh-based alternative investment manager that last week requisitioned a general meeting to overhaul the board at Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF), has lifted its stake in the battery fund to 6% from 5%.
Gresham House Asset Management has raised its stake in Strategic Equity Capital (SEC) to 15% from 12%, the £167m UK smaller companies investment trust run by Ken Wotton, the firm’s head of public equity. This follows a disclosure from 1607 Capital Partners that it had reduced its stake to 10.8% from 12.0%. The trust stands on a 6% discount.
Fidelity Emerging Markets (FEML) gained 5.6% in June with the shares returning 6.4%, ahead of the 4.3% rise in the MSCI Emerging Markets index. Fund managers Nick Price and Chris Tennant said their “short” positions did well, offsetting declines in conventional “long” holdings. Stock selection in consumer discretionary, IT and consumer services was positive with their picks in Taiwan doing the best, although an underweight to the rally in South Korea and stock picking in Canada weighed on returns. The shares rose 12.7% in the first half and are up 32.5% over three years, beating the benchmark’s 17% return. The £535m trust stands on a 9% discount.
Alan Scott, a non-executive director of Mid Wynd International (MWY), has sold over £76,000 of shares in the £298m global growth investment trust run by Louis Florentin-Lee and Barnaby Wilson at Lazards. Scott, who has served on the board since 2012, yesterday sold 10,000 shares at 761p at a 2.7% discount to net asset value.
Albion Enterprise VCT (AAEV) achieved an underlying 8.24% total return in the year to 31 March and paid 19.92p of dividends, including a special payment of 13.5p per share, according to its annual report. The performance was helped by the sale of Egress Software Technologies at seven times cost. The venture capital trust almost doubled in size to £278.5m after acquiring the £131m Albion Development VCT.
William Tamworth, co-manager of Artemis UK Future Leaders (AFL), the £117m UK smaller companies trust that Artemis took over from Invesco last year, spent nearly £58,000 on 15,000 shares at 386p yesterday at a 15% discount to NAV. Tamworth, who runs the portfolio with Mark Niznik, now holds 300,000 shares directly and 375,000 indirectly.
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity (VOF) says Charlotta Ginman, a chartered accountant and non-executive director who joined the board in January, has bought her first shares in the company yesterday, purchasing 4,400 at 456p per share at a 20% discount to NAV.
Personal Assets (PNL) says chartered management consultant Sharon Brown yesterday bought her first shares in the £1.6bn Troy-managed multi-asset fund following her election to the investment trust’s board as a non-executive director last Friday. Brown bought 12,916 shares at 511p for £66,096 when they stood at a 1% discount.
