Sirius Real Estate (SRE) has added to its defence-related assets with the €49.8m (£43.1m) acquisition of a light-industrial business park in Fulda, north-east of Frankfurt. The £1.6bn Anglo-German business park investor said the 112,867 sqm plot was fully let with its main tenant, a “high quality” German personal armour manufacturer, accounting for 78% of the rent roll, agreeing to take more space as it became available. The site generates annual rent of €3.93m with an average 5.1 years left on tenant leases.
Our view
Matthew Read, senior analyst at QuotedData, said: “This is a very Sirius-style deal – a high-yielding industrial asset with visible income and asset management potential from day one. The 7.8% EPRA net initial yield is attractive, but the broader opportunity lies in expanding the rental income over time as the anchor tenant takes more space. The trade-off is increased counter party risk. However, the tenant’s business is supported by rising European defence and security spending. That gives the park’s income stream a more strategic underpinning than many cyclical industrial uses.
“Sirius has now built more than €200m of defence-supported assets at a blended gross yield of around 8.9%. At a time when many property companies remain constrained by financing costs and uncertain valuations, Sirius continues to find income-accretive opportunities. The challenge will be ensuring that greater tenant concentration is more than offset by covenant strength, rental growth and long-term demand.”
Aberdeen Equity Income (AEI) has reported a positive half-year performance with the UK portfolio, swelled by £120m of assets from the merger with stablemate Shires Income, returning 9.9% in the six months to 31 March to beat the FTSE All-Share’s 8.9% return. Energy and financial stocks such as Ithaca Energy and CMC Markets were the main contributors to performance. Caution on highly-valued technology stocks also paid off as the likes of RELX and Sage fell on fears of the competitive impact from artificial intelligence (AI). Fund managers Thomas Moore and Iain Pyle subsequently bought into the sector. Shareholders only saw a 4.7% return in the period as the shares derated in March in response to the Iran war, slipping from a premium above net asset value to stand 4.6% below NAV. The discount has since narrowed to 0.5%. AEI paid the first of three interim dividends of 5.7p in March 2026 and intends to pay a total of at least 23.1p for the year when setting its fourth and final dividend.
Matthew Read of QuotedData said: “These are a decent set of results from Aberdeen Equity Income, with outperforming its benchmark despite the headwind from large caps outperforming mid- and small-caps, where AIE retains meaningful exposure. With the merger with Shires Income under its belt, AIE is in a stronger proposition – its assets are now over £300m, liquidity has improved, costs are lower and the mandate has been broadened. The addition of former Shires manager Iain Pyle alongside Thomas Moore should also add depth to the investment team as well.”
Majedie (MAJE), the £156m flexible investment fund, delivered on its defensive mandate with a 4.4% underlying investment return in the six months to 31 March. The half-year results showed shareholders did better than this, with a 10.4% return as the share price discount – or gap – to net asset value (NAV) narrowed from 14% to 9.3%. All three parts of the portfolio made progress. Fund investments returned 3.7% with stakes in Contrarian Emerging Markets and Fearnley Energy Alpha performing strongly. Special investments made 0.98%, led by stakes in a Brazilian waste management company and in uranium funds, and other direct investments made 0.36%. A 4.5p quarterly dividend was paid in line with the policy of distributing 0.75% of net assets every three months.
QuotedData’s Matthew Read said: “Majedie’s interim results show the benefits of its ‘liquid endowment’ approach. During what was a volatile period in markets, MAJE delivered a solid NAV return that has come from a range of sources – all three portfolio sleeves contributing positively. The portfolio is deliberately positioned away from crowded trades, with an emphasis on idiosyncratic return sources, and this diversification has been helpful in markets dominated by a narrow group of stocks and unsettled by geopolitics, oil-price volatility, shifting rate expectations and questions around AI’s impact on software and credit.”
BlackRock Frontiers (BRFI) was on course to beat its benchmark in the six months to 31 March until the Iran war broke out. Half-year results show that in the five months to 28 February, the company generated an underlying total return of 16.6%, outperforming its benchmark’s 13.4% return. However, the outbreak of the conflict between the US and Iran at the end of February led to a sharp sell-off across global markets and the company’s net asset value (NAV) slumped 12.1% in March, compared to a fall of 6.7% in the index. Although markets subsequently recovered, overall NAV rose 2.4% behind the benchmark’s 4.3% gain. Shareholders’ total return was 1.4%.
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