Ceiba (CBA), the £48m Cuban property fund whose shares were suspended after being hit by US sanctions last month, is to be taken over by an administrator following the resignations of its board, management team and external service providers. Ceiba said it welcomed the Guernsey Financial Services Commission’s decision to request the Royal Court of Guernsey, in which the investment company is based, to nominate a court-appointed administrator. The decision was taken in consultation with Ceiba which has closed its office in Havana. The London-listed shares remain suspended.
James Carthew, head of investment company research at QuotedData, said: “Personally, I find it extraordinary that President Trump can govern by diktat (executive order), with almost no checks and balances. In Ceiba’s case, his ability to use the US sanctions regime to effectively dictate the behaviour of non-US entities is troubling. I can’t help feeling that the more this power is abused, the more likely it is that countries will find ways around it. In the meantime, Ceiba shareholders must sit tight and wait for a change of leadership in the US, hoping all the while that Trump doesn’t decide to lob some of his much-depleted stock of missiles at Cuba in a probably futile attempt to shore up his popularity.”
Foresight Solar (FSFL) is upgrading 20% of its portfolio believing replacing panels and inverters at nine solar sites with over 150MW of capacity could generate up to £2.5m annual revenue and contribute to the 1.1 times earnings cover forecast for this year’s 8.1p per share dividend target. Will Morgan, the new lead manager who joined Foresight Group in May, said the works formed part of a wider enhancement programme that could increase electricity generation by 14GWh or 2%. He said: “By drawing on maintenance receivers to finance the works, when possible, we’re able to realise upside with minimal extra cash requirements.” FSFL rose 1.2% to 70.4p after the announcement. Last week it reported a 4.4p fall to 94.9p in net asset value (NAV) per share for the second quarter due to lower price forecasts, lower production and rising interest rates. That leaves the £379m investment company on a 26% discount to NAV and a yield 11.5%.
HgCapital (HGT) will invest £20m in Nourish, a Bournemouth-based software provider for UK care homes as part of a strategic growth investment by its fund manager Hg. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed but HGT will invest through the Hg Mercury fund while Livingbridge, the private equity manager that has backed the company since 2022, retains a minority stake. Founder Nuno Almeida will remain CEO and a significant shareholder. He said artificial intelligence (AI) was a “big part” of continuing to make carers’ jobs easier and that Hg’s Catalyst team would “give us a real advantage when building new AI products”. HGT saw the value of its software investments drop 4.9% in the first half as a result of the read across from the sell-off of listed software stocks this year on AI disruption fears. However, that was a lot less than the 24.9% slide in the share price as the company highlighted the robust performance of its companies. This morning HGT dipped 1% to 422.4p, widening its 19.5% discount to NAV.
Private equity fund manager Oakley Capital is lending an additional £1m to Time Out (TMO) to help the media group establish its first London Market. The interest rate of SONIA plus 8% is the same as the £1.1m loan Oakley Capital a year ago. This constitutes a related-party transaction as Oakley Capital Investments (OCI), the investment company that invests in Oakley Capital funds, is a 33.2% shareholder in TMO following a rights issue it supported last December. The disclosure came in TMO’s half-year trading update which showed continuing market revenue grew 8% to £40m in the first six months of the year with continuing media revenue up 17% to £21m. Its shares rallied 11% to 7.5p.
