Aberdeen New India (ANII) has moved closer to holding a 25% tender offer next year after underperforming in the year to 31 March. Excluding the impact of capital gains tax, the £304m investment trust reported a 20.3% drop in net asset value compared to the 15.3% decline in the MSCI India index. Shareholders emerged with a 15.3% loss as the share price discount narrowed from 15% to 9.6% with the trust’s board buying back 3.9m shares in response. The underperformance was caused by falls in cyclical and small and medium-sized stocks over economic fears sparked by the Iran war in the last month of the period. Fund managers James Thom and Rita Tahilramani have reduced holdings in capital market and industrial companies, where cost pressures and supply disruptions are a risk, and reinvested in more defensive holdings. The fund will have to buy back up to a quarter of its shares if growth in net asset value lags the benchmark in the five years to 31 March 2027. With a year to go, ANII had returned 7.4% over four years to 31 March, behind the benchmark’s 9.6%.

Syncona (SYNC) chair Melanie Gee is stepping down after eight years on the board and overseeing last year’s shareholder approval for the life science fund’s plan to return £250m of capital. Norman Crighton, chair of RM Infrastructure Income (RMII) and AVI Japan Opportunity (AJOT) and a non-executive director of Gore Street Energy Storage (GSF), will join the board on 1 July while a process to appoint Gee’s successor begins. Gee said Crighton had “a strong track record of working with boards to deliver shareholder returns” and his expertise would be important as SYNC focuses on its new investment policy announced last October. Crighton’s appointment was announced before annual results today showing the £589m bioscience fund’s mostly unquoted portfolio reported a flat year to 31 March and did not participate in the rebound in listed biotechnology companies. Net asset value dipped 0.2% to 170.6p per share as a write-up of Beacon following a series-C funding round was offset by write-downs of Kesmalea Therapeutics and CRT Pioneer Fund and continued volatility in the share price of Autolus Therapeutics. At 97.8p, the shares stand on a 43% discount and have lost 55% over five years.

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