Literacy Capital (BOOK) is moving to the main market with effect from 11 September 2026. To comply with the listing rules – which require that the chairman of the company is independent – Paul Pindar is stepping down as chair, but will stay on as a non-independent non-executive director. Dawn Marriott, who joined the board in February 2026, becomes chair.
Glenstone’s offer for Alternative Income REIT has been declared unconditional as it now owns or has acceptances over 50.42% of the company. The offer is still open for acceptance. If Glenstone gets more than 75%, it will apply to delist AIRE. If it gets over 90% it will use its rights to compulsorily acquire the balance of AIRE’s shares.
Andrew Jones, who has over 30 years’ investment experience, has been made deputy fund manager of Henderson High Income. David Smith, manager of the trust since 2014, continues in that role. The trust beat its benchmark over the first six months of 2026, returning 6.3% to the benchmark’s 6.0%, and a narrowing of the discount meant that shareholders did even better with a return of 8.7%. Takeover bids for portfolio companies such as Schroders and DCC Energy helped. After paying two interim dividends of 2.775p, the third interim dividend has been upped to 2.8p.
Home REIT has completed the last of its property sales and the company is ready to appoint liquidators to the subsidiaries that used to own its properties – that process is expcted to begin on 16 September. We are still waiting to see what happens with the potential legal claims against the company and its advisers.
EPE Special Opportunities (ESO) sold its stake in Pharmacy2U in July for £7.5m, 13.4% more than it was valued at in its NAV and 3.4x what it paid for it. ESO also sold 5% of its Luceco stake, freeing up £4.8m. Cash on the balance sheet at 31 July 2026 was £20.6m. The company has also been issuing loan notes – £6m worth in August – as it prepares for the redemption of its zero dividend preference shares in December this year. Difficult trading at Whittard of Chelsea and softer retail demand at Rayware weighed on the NAV but this was more than offset by Luceco and Pharmacy 2U – the NAV rose by 10.6% over the six months ended 31 July 2026. The share price was a lot higher – up 40.7% from 31 January 2026 – but the discount remained very wide at 47% at the period end.
