A 100 for 1 share split at Lindsell Train, half-year results from Baillie Gifford China Growth and North American Income, update from HarbourVest Global Private Equity and a fund raise from Yellow Cake, the uranium investor.

Lindsell Train (LTI) investment trust has implemented the 100 for 1 share split announced at its annual results in June. This means shares that would have closed at £700 last night are now priced at 700p. The number of shares in issue has increased to 20m. The aim is to increase liquidity of the shares and make them easier to trade.

Baillie Gifford China Growth (BGCG) has clawed back more of the underperformance it has made since abandoning its former Asia inc-Japan strategy five years ago. Half-year results show an underlying 14.6% investment return in the six months to 31 July that beat the 10.3% sterling return from the MSCI China All Shares index, with its shares doing slightly better with a 15.5% total return. In the year to 31 July the total investment return on net assets has been 40.8%, outperforming the benchmark by 10.5%. However, since the move to Baillie Gifford from Witan in September 2020 the company’s net asset value (NAV) has underperformed the benchmark by 9.9% with the shares 14.7% adrift. Nevertheless, the company has got off to a good start in its four-year performance review started last November. In the eight months to 31 July, growth in NAV has outperformed the China index by 4.7%, which, if continued, would mean the company would not have to offer to buy back all its shares, potentially forcing a wind-up. The main contributors to the strong half-year performance were toy company Pop Mart, telecom manufacturer Zhongji Innolight, social media platform Tencent and Zijin Mining and an increase in valuation of ByteDance, the unquoted owner of the TikTok app. Chair Nicholas Pink was positive on the outlook: “Whilst the benchmark’s valuation has increased since August 2024 to around the average of the long-term history, and the portfolio’s average price earnings ratio is higher than the benchmark, the company’s holdings are forecasted to deliver nearly double the benchmark’s earnings growth over the next three years with significantly higher profitability. Furthermore, the portfolio also trades at a substantial discount to global equities.”

North American Income Trust (NAIT) slipped 1.2% in the six months to 31 July but has continued to outperform following its move to Janus Henderson from Aberdeen in August last year. Half-year results show the £408m value-style investment trust’s total underlying investment return beat the 4.3% decline in the Russell 1000 Value index with positions in chip maker Broadcom, tobacco giant Philip Morris, antenna manufacturer Amphenol and Citigroup bank doing best. Its shares returned a slightly positive 0.5% total return with dividends included as the discount, or gap, to net asset value (NAV) narrowed by 1.2% to 7.3%. Earnings per share were stable at 5.97p versus 5.98p last year with 79% of income from dividend payments and 20% from options. These covered 5.6p of dividends, up 3.8% from 5.4p a year ago. Fund managers Fran Radano, who ran the trust at Aberdeen, and Jeremiah Buckley, who joined him at JP Morgan, said: “From a valuation standpoint, we are comfortable with the average forward price to earnings multiple of approximately 16 times for the companies in the portfolio. However, we have reduced positions in certain overextended market areas. Revenue-wise, dividend growth remains consistent with previous periods, thanks to the predictable cash flow and strong balance sheets of the companies in the portfolio.”

Uranium investment company Yellow Cake (YCA) launches $125m (£92.5m) institutional share placing at £5.64 per share to fund the purchase of 1.3m pounds of physical uranium from Kazatomprom of Kazakhstan.

HarbourVest Global Private Equity (HVPE), the highly diversified £2bn private fund that committed $125m to a new flexible managed account this month, saw net asset value (NAV) rise 2.5% in dollar terms in August driven by second quarter gains in its HarbourVest funds. The investment company’s shares trade 35% below NAV, a wide discount that prompted the repurchase of $5m of shares last month with $40.1m available to buy back more. It has bought $212m of its cheap shares in the past three years, adding 5.1% to NAV per share.

High-yielding debt fund Volta Finance (VTA) says Stephen Le Page will retire as a non-executive director on 4 December after 11 years service on the board.