Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT) fund manager has bought another £45,500 of shares to lift his total to over 5.8m, or just under 5.4% of the £811m UK equity income investment trust. Train, who has managed the 100-year-old listed fund since 2000, bought 6,086 shares at an average price of 747.6p to take his total position to £43.8m. Declines of 13%-18% this year in his key data analytics and software stocks such as Relx, Sage and Experian have contributed to an 11.6% fall over 12 months, the worst in its sector. Over five years it has shed 7.3%, including dividends, the second worst total return in the peer group. The shares stand on an 6.8% discount to net asset value, a comparatively good rating considering the poor performance. The board has bought back over a third of the shares in the past year. FGT got a small boost yesterday when Intertek (ITRK), a 3.8% holding in February, jumped 13% on plans to split its energy and testing businesses.
Saba Capital has lifted its stakes in Pantheon International (PIN) to 11% from 10%, SDCL Efficiency Income (SEIT) to 15.4% from 14.2% and BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC) to 11.6% from 10%. The activist had only doubled its position to 10% in Pantheon at the end of March. Its shares stand on a 29% discount. SDCL announced a move into a managed wind-down last week with its shares stuck 52% below net asset value. The increase in BRSC comes after it completed its merger with BlackRock Throgmorton after the latter’s over-subscribed 38% cash exit this week. BRSC shares on a 14.5% discount.
Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI9) annual results confirm another disastrous year for the winding-down fund which tomorrow will make its first return of capital of £30m, equal to 3.5p per share. In 2025 the company, formerly managed by Triple Point, suffered a 73% slump in net asset value due to the £214.8m write-down of Arqiva, the indebted UK broadcasting platform, announced in February. It raised £76.7m from three big disposals which it used to repay debts. Last week it received a £10m cash settlement for the earnout of Verne Global, the Icelandic data centre sold for $575m two years ago. This week the Financial Reporting Council announced it was investigating auditor PwC over DGI9’s inflated 2023 figures.
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