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.

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 €242.5mreflecting acquisitions such as Bizspace in the UK, with underlying like-for-like rental growth of 5.2% to €211.7m.

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 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.