Oakley Capital Investments (OCI) generated a 7.1% underlying investment return in the first half of 2025.
QuotedData’s James Carthew said: “Six months isn’t long but these numbers make Oakley Capital Investments the best-performing private equity trust over the past six months and have allowed it to extend its lead over rival HgCapital over five years (+218% versus +204%). The fascinating thing for me is all the new investments that it has been making, laying the foundations for future growth. The discount is headed in the right direction, but I think there is further to go on that front. I’m not surprised that it is nominated in our Investors’ Choice Awards“
If you watched Oakley’s Steven Tredget on our recent private equity panel, you’ll have heard about the importance of growing the underlying companies to generating growth in net asset value (NAV). Over the 12 months ended 30 June 2025, the underlying organic earnings growth of the portfolio was 13%.
In addition, many portfolio companies are growing their businesses through acquisition, with 41 deals completed during the period.
Earnings growth helped generate valuation uplifts for investments such as Bright Stars (+6 pence per OCI share), TechInsights (+6 pence), Phenna Group (+5 pence), and North Sails (+5 pence). However, the trust’s holding in a listed company, Time Out detratcted from returns, taking off about 25p as its share price fell.
New investments totalled £54m and £6m came back from a refinancing of the estate agency investment Dexters. New for 2025 were Infravadis, a German underground infrastructure specialist, and JBMC, a management consultancy business focused on Italian financial services.
There was also a transformational deal for I-TRACING as it merged with Bridewell.
Earlier in the year, we reported that OCI had decied to prioritise buybacks over dividends. £21.4m worth of shares were bought back and cancelled. That seems to be having an effect on the share rating. While the discount widened over the first half of 2025, it has narrwoed meaningfully since. Undoubtedly, it has also helped that the trust has moved to trade on the Main Market, which should make it easier for ordinary investors to buy the shares. It also made it eligible for inclusion in the FTSE 250 Index.
OCI’s chair Caroline Foulger bowed out after nine years’ service on 2 September. The company was transformed under her tenure. Steve Pearce has stepped up to become interim chair while a more permanent successor is chosen.
