Mark and Linda O’Hare, the couple who made £2bn selling their Preqin data firm to BlackRock two years ago, are backing HgCapital Trust (HGT) to recover following last week’s share price slide.
Valhalla Ventures, the holding company that owned Preqin and sold it for £2.5bn cash to BlackRock in 2024, yesterday disclosed a 3.3% stake in HGT, a £1.2bn private equity fund hit by the sell-off in software stocks following the launch of a new legal AI tool by Anthropic.
Valhalla, in Norse legend the “Hall of the Slain”, now manages the O’Hares’ investment and philanthropic activities. It bought just over 15.1m shares in HGT last Friday as their price bounced back to 427p from a 380p low on Wednesday having slumped from 507p in the previous week.
Down 2.8% today at 457p, the shares value the Valhalla holding at £69m. They stand about 16% below net asset value, double the average 8% discount of the past year.
A spokesman for Valhalla said: “Valhalla is a patient, long-term investor; we don’t comment on individual investments.”
Valhalla’s website highlights its interest in backing fast-growing data and technology companies, startups and private equity funds. This looks a good fit for HgCapital as its fund manager tries to reassure the market that it is ahead of the curve in mobilising its unquoted business software companies for the AI age.
Jupiter Fund Management also pounced on the shares with a 5.5% stake last week.
