Pershing Square Holdings (PSH) fund manager Bill Ackman has revived plans to launch a Pershing Square USA closed-end fund on the New York Stock Exchange. A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows the shares will be sold at $50 and Ackman’s firm Pershing Square Capital Management has received investment commitments of $2.8bn. It is looking to raise between $5bn and $10bn. The flotation was pulled two years ago but if it goes ahead the less concentrated version of PSH would benefit the London-listed investment company whose performance fee would be reduced by 20% of the fees earned by the manager on the new fund.
Shires Income (SHRS) says holders of just 3.6%, or 1.4m, of its shares chose cash rather than merge with stable mate Aberdeen Equity Income (AEI) meaning most of its £119m of assets will transfer to the enlarged trust whose shares have traded close to asset value for the past year. Broker Winterflood said this was “impressive” as up to 25% of shares could have cashed out under the merger agreement.
Aberdeen Diversified Income & Growth (ADIG) is to place itself into liquidation after completing two secondary fund sales of £13.8m with its remaining assets expected to be sold next week, just over two years since the company began its managed wind-down. A 14.5p per share return of capital is expected around 13 April through a compulsory share purchase.
Supermarket Income (SUPR) has reported a 10% decline in half-year earnings per share to 2.7p as a result of debt refinancing and switching of assets into its Blue Owl joint venture that leaves 3.09p dividends, up 1%, partly uncovered. The alternative income fund says dividends will grow 2% a year from next year.
3i Infrastructure (3IN) has reinvested most of its proceeds from its €1.1bn sale of airport ground equipment provider TCR last week, buying a majority stake (estimated to be 75%) in Lefdal Mine Datacenter, a “high-quality” Norwegian data centre campus acquired for €300m from a Columbia Threadneedle fund. Taking into account €600m of borrowing, 3IN had around €500m to redeploy.
Pacific Horizon (PHI) interims show the £734m Baillie Gifford Asia trust smashed its benchmark in the six months to 31 January with fund managers Roderick Snell and Ben Durrant’s semiconductor and mining stock picks helping generate a 36.6% return versus the 17.8% of the MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan index. The shares returned 38.7% as their discount to net asset value narrowed to 8.1% from 9.5%.
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