Fidelity Special Values (FSV) fund manager Alex Wright has told The Times that this month’s “AI scare” has created some of the best investment opportunities since the 2020 pandemic. While he believed that some of the sell-down in highly-rated stocks such as London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), Relx (RELX) and Experian (EXPN) was “a valid reaction” to the uncertainty generated by artificial intelligence breakthroughs, in contrast to rival Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT) manager Nick Train, Wright said there was no clear evidence of a threat at other stocks that had been punished, such as wealth manager St James’s Place (STJ) and recruitment companies PageGroup (PAGE), Hays (HAS) and SThree (STEM). These are held in the strong performing UK All Companies trust and had been “indiscriminately punished”, he said.
Brown Advisory US Smaller Companies (BASC), the £160m investment trust standing on a 9% discount ahead of a continuation vote in November, underperformed in the second half of last year. Half-year results showed a 4.2% underlying return that lagged the 17.1% advance in the Russell 2000 index with the fund managers’ focus on “quality” stocks struggling in the “speculative” AI-driven sentiment in the third quarter of the year.
Pantheon Infrastructure (PINT) has reset the terms of its currently unutilised £115m rolling credit facility for another three years to February 2029. When the £544m investment company does draw down funds on the multi-currency facility to support investments ahead of disposal receipts, it will pay 2.65% over its interest rate benchmark down from 2.85% previously.
International Public Partnerships (INPP) has completed the £42m sale of its minority stake in the Moray East Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) which will help fund INNP’s next £250m commitment to Sizewell C and its ongoing £225m share buyback programme. The £2.3bn investment company has not said what the premium to net asset value that was achieved in the disposal, but broker Winterflood estimates it was around 13% above carrying value. INPP has made around £390m of disposals since July 2023, equivalent to 14% of the portfolio.
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