Shaires Holdings (SHR), the AIM-listed investment company offering exposure to a portfolio of private artificial intelligence companies, has extended its retail share offer to 4.30pm on 24 August to give it time to reach a “broader range of investors”. The offer of new shares at $20 each at a discount of around 18% to their previous price of $24.50 was originally due to close yesterday.
Matthew Read, senior QuotedData analyst, said: “We are pleased to see that Shaires Holdings has extended the deadline for its WRAP Retail offer. It is important that investors have the time to research and understand the proposition and the structure of the company before making an investment decision. Our recently published note was intended to assist with that (you can read it here).”
RTW Biotech Opportunities (RTW) has hailed the $490m acquisition by BioMarin Pharmaceutical of the US of its private portfolio company Alesta Therapeutics as endorsement of its strategy. RTW invested $2.4m in the rare disease specialist in 2024 and 2025, a stake that was valued at $3.8m at 31 July and will rise by $1.6m as a result of the takeover, a 0.2% boost to net asset value (NAV).
QuotedData’s Matthew Read said: “This is good news for RTW’s shareholders. First, they benefit from a 41% uplift in Alesta’s carrying value and, while the upfront NAV benefit is modest because Alesta was a small position, they still retain exposure to further milestone payments and to the assets being spun out. However, more importantly, this is now the sixth takeover of one of RTW’s portfolio companies announced this year, giving further validation to the manager’s ability to identify promising science early, while also underlining the appetite of large pharmaceutical companies to replenish their pipelines as patent expiries loom.”
Oakley Capital Investments (OCI) is to invest up to £20m in Graphwise, an Austro-Bulgarian pioneer in knowledge graph and semantic data technology, a key enabler of enterprise artificial intelligence (AI). The investment is through Oakley Capital Fund VI which is taking a majority stake in the business formed in 2004 from the merger of Ontotext in Sofia and Semantic Web Company in Vienna. Oakley Capital said Graphwise had attracted more than 200 blue-chip customers with its ability to convert data into reliable AI tools and was generating annual growth of over 30% growth in recurring revenues.
Land Securities (LAND) might have to raise money from shareholders for the first time in 17 years to fund its rumoured acquisition of Metrocentre in Gateshead, having fended off rivals such as Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group and Hammerson (HMSO), the Times reported, quoting Peel Hunt real estate industry analyst Matt Sapeira.
Fund managers have more of their money in stocks than at any point in almost five years, according to a monthly poll by Bank of America, amid growing optimism that the global economy is set for a “boom”. Cash in their funds is at an “uber low” level of 3.5%, the sixth-lowest level recorded by the bank, its analysts said.
