Sam Morse, who has been managing Fidelity European since 2011, has said that he intends to retire next year. Ahead of that, Alexander Laing will work alongside Sam and existing co-manager Marcel Stötzel, to ensure a smooth transition. The trust’s half-year returns (covering the first six months of 2026) lagged its benchmark, returning 6.4% in NAV terms and 5.2% in share price terms while the FTSE World Europe ex UK Index, rose by +10.3%. Partners Group (see below) and 3i were the main detractors from returns. As we covered earlier in the year, 3i was knocked by Action’s poor sales figures in France, but its share price has continued to recover since the end of June, up by more than 10%. The trust was also knocked by some exposure to stocks such as SAP, which are seen as vulnerable to the advance of agentic AI. However, the AI story continues to boost ASML, which was the largest positive contributor to returns. The managers expect to see more of the same and have increased exposure to companies benefiting from AI and data centre investment.
QuotedData’s James Carthew said “I worked with Sam at M&G many years ago. Over the long term, he’s done a great job with Fidelity European – its 10 year NAV returns are second only to those of JPMorgan European Growth and Income – and I wish him all the best in his retirement.”
Regional REIT sold £21.5m worth of property over the fist six months of 2026, which helped bring its loan-to-value ratio down to 38.5%. Another £4.3m of property has been sold since. Its EPRA NTA dropped by 3% to 188.7p per share. The dividend has been cut from 5p to 4p (full-year target 8p) as the trust adopts a plan of distributing at least 90% of its property rental profit. Occupancy fell from 75.9% to 74.3%. The company is trying to sound an upbeat note, saying “High construction costs and significant planning hurdles have resulted in a historically low development pipeline, and with more companies looking to expand their footprint outside of London, there is a shortage of quality, sustainable space in the regions.”
Onward Opportunities half-year figures are somewhet redundant given NAV moves since. At the half-year mark, the NAV was 123.5p, down 14.1% from the end of 2025. Today, the NAV is 161.9p – I covered the reasons for that in the show last Friday.
Partners Private Equity has published a circular to convene the meeting to approve its cash exit proposals. The only real difference from earlier announcements is that the maximum size of the realisation pool has been set at 40% of the trust (up from 30%). The company says that this decision followed “discussions with significant institutional shareholders”. The meeting will be held on 7 October 2026, but elections need to be in by 1pm on 30 September and your platform may have a much earlier deadline than that.
