Martin Gilbert’s River Global (RVRG) fund manager agrees to a £9.7m all-share acquisition by Liontrust Asset Management (LIO), with its £2.7bn assets under management set to lift Liontrust’s to £24.4bn. The deal will expand Liontrust’s investment company range with India Capital Growth (IGC), River UK Micro Cap (RMMC) and European Opportunities Trust (EOT) joining the fold with its Edinburgh (EDIN) UK equity income trust. Liontrust will issue 2.97m of its shares to pay £7.6m for the business, excluding River Global’s interest in the Parmenion fund platform business. It will pay a further sum of up £2.1m through the issue of 820,722 shares when assets transfer from the Alexander Darwall managed EOT to a new open-ended fund, the likely outcome of an ongoing strategic review. Gilbert, the former Aberdeen founder and chief executive who established River Global four years ago, will join Liontrust as a non-executive director. River Global shareholders will own 22.3% of Liontrust and have agreed to lock in their shares. Liontrust chief executive John Ions said the addition of River Global would strengthen and broaden the business while River Global fund managers would benefit from Liontrust’s brand and distribution. Gilbert said: “River Global and Liontrust are two highly complementary businesses and it makes perfect sense to bring them together.” Christopher Mills, the chief executive of Harwood Capital which owns 16.8% of River Global’s A-shares and who sits on its board, has backed the transaction.
According to The Times, Harwood Capital is also urging the break-up of advertising group M&C Saatchi (SAA) in which it holds a 6% stake through Rockwood Strategic (RKW), the £211 UK smaller companies investment trust managed by Richard Staveley.
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity (VOF) underperformed the VN Index in the six months to 31 December with a 12.8% underlying dollar return from its investments against the benchmark’s 29.8% return. Interim results explained this was mainly caused by not holding a small group of stocks, particularly conglomerate Vingroup, which generated nearly half of the market gains. Financials and real estate holdings drove the investment company’s performance, while industrials and consumer stocks were weaker but positive. Portfolio turnover was high as the managers exited some long-term holdings, such as FPT and Vinhomes, and added SSI Securities, Techcom Securities and VietCap Securities. Dividends per share were 7.25 cents in line with the policy of paying out 2% of net asset value each year.
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