Premier Miton Global Renewables Trust (PMGR), a £19m split capital infrastructure securities fund, has confirmed its intention to wind up after concluding the repayment of its maturing zero dividend preference shares in November will leave it too small to continue.
It will offer ordinary shareholders their money back at close to net asset value (NAV) or a rollover into the £70.6m Premier Miton Global Infrastructure Income open-ended fund run by Jim Wright, not PMGR manager James Smith. This is expected to take place in December. A circular with more details will be published ahead of a shareholder general meeting.
Our view
James Carthew, head of investment company research at QuotedData, said: “As expected, Premier Miton Global Renewables is headed for the exit. Shareholders get a straight choice between cash and a rollover into an open-ended fund. The open-ended fund looks to me a bit more like the previous incarnation of the investment company, with a wider focus on infrastructure than PMGR’s current portfolio, albeit with less emerging markets exposure than the old Premier Global Infrastructure had. It also means settling for a much lower yield, about half of PMGR’s 8%.
“My inclination would be to take the cash and switch into Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure (EGL) instead, which currently comes on an 8.5% discount. You still suffer the income cut, but you get something with a much better total return track record than either Premier fund.”
