Castelnau (CGL), the £263m special situations fund run by Phoenix Asset Management Partners, jumped 7% on Friday after announcing the valuation of Valderrama, the company through which it owns undertaker Dignity, was expected to rise by 10%. The impact on Castelnau’s net asset value (NAV) should be of a “similar magnitude”, it said, given Valderrama represented 106.6% of NAV at 30 September. The uplift was driven by higher-than-anticipated cash generation with the business releasing £45m of funeral plan surpluses that will enable it to repay £39m of bonds. Aurora UK Alpha (ARR), Phoenix’s £288m deep value equities fund that is 12% invested in Castelnau, closed 0.8% lower on a 10% discount.
Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) disclosed a new $4.3bn stake in Google’s parent company Alphabet (GOOGL.O) on Friday. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Berkshire said it owned 17.85m Alphabet shares as of 30 September. The investment in Alphabet, which became its tenth-largest US stock holding, is surprising given Buffett’s usual value-investing style and aversion to technology companies, said Reuters. Berkshire cut its Apple (AAPL.O) stake to 238.2m shares from 280m in the third quarter, and has sold nearly three-quarters of the more than 900m shares it once held. Apple remains Berkshire’s largest stock holding, at $60.7bn.
Sirius Real Estate (SRE), the £1.5bn investor in UK and German business parks, lifted its interim dividend by 4% to €3.18 cents per share after a 56.8% increase in half-year profit after tax to €87m from €55.5m a year ago due to strong operational performance, valuation gains and the release of deferred tax after Germany government said corporate tax would be cut by 1% a year from 15% to 10% in 2028-2032. Basic earnings per share rose by a smaller amount of 47.2% to €5.77c in the six months to 30 September from €3.92c a year ago, reflecting the impact of the equity fund raise in July 2024. EPRA earnings per share fell 28.8% to €2.84c due to a €14.2m foreign currency translation loss. Net tangible assets (NTA) per share slipped 1.4% to €115.94c from €117.61c at 31 March as the currency loss offset the valuation gains. The total rent roll grew 15.2% to €242.5m reflecting acquisitions such as Bizspace in the UK, with underlying like-for-like rental growth of 5.2% to €211.7m.
Value & Indexed Property Income (VIP), the £80m inflation-linked, 7%-yielding long-lease real estate fund managed by Sarah Martin, Matthew Oakeshott and Louise Cleary at OLIM, has paid and declared 7.2p per share in dividends for the half year to 30 September, up from 6.8p a year ago, but uncovered by earnings per share of 5.64p which more than doubled from 2.77p. After the sale of four properties at valuation – two bowling alleys in Doncaster and Stafford and two industrial properties at Aylesford and Thirsk – the company has 26 freehold properties spread 32% in supermarkets, 20% industrial/warehouses, 13% garden centre, 11% health club and caravan park, 11% bowling, 10% hotels, 3% pubs and no offices. Rent was 100% collected while net asset value fell 1.3% to 211.9p from 214.7p at 31 March as the net initial yield of properties rose to 6.5% from 6.3%. The fund managers said the government’s proposed ban of upwards-only rent review clauses in new leases would be unhelpful to most investors, but should benefit holders of existing property on long index-related leases because these would have “growing scarcity value”. Last month the company returned £3m in a tender offer, fixed its life until 2033 and launched a 10% discount control target. At 192.9p, up 1.5% today, the shares stand 9% below the new NAV.
RIT Capital Partners (RCP), the £3bn Rothschild-backed multi-asset fund standing on a 24% discount, returned 2.5% last month after payment of its 21.5p per share interim dividend. Net asset value (NAV) per share gained 51p to £29.03 at 31 October, taking this year’s total underlying return to 12.8%, led by rises in tech and life science stocks with external fund investments in AI, fintech and software also doing well.
Literacy Capital (BOOK), the £277m UK private equity fund, has appointed Deutsche Numis as its corporate broker to replace Singer Capital Markets. The company hopes a £6m repayment of capital this month will start to rerate shares standing 27% below net asset value.
Weiss Korea Opportunity (WKOF) has sold the last of its assets under the wind-down approved by shareholders in April. It will return £7m in a third and final compulsory redemption of shares before shareholders meet on 18 December to liquidate the company. It will delist on 19 December.
Sequoia Economic Infrastructure (SEQI), the £1.2bn, 8.6%-yielding debt fund on a 14% discount, says net asset value dipped 0.5% last month with NAV per share of 93.18p at 31 October down from 93.67p at 30 September. Payment of the quarterly dividend knocked 1.72p off NAV, outweighing valuation gains, interest income and the positive impact of share buybacks.
