Literacy Capital (BOOK) has sold its minority stake in Cubo Work back to the majority shareholder of the office and co-working space provider. Financial terms have not been disclosed but Richard Pindar, chief executive of BOOK’s fund manager, said the outcome was a bit better than its warning at the start of this month that the £24.4m investment was likely to be written off entirely. “Following our announcement on 2 October, we believe the disposal of our minority stake in Cubo is in the best interests of both BOOK’s shareholders and Cubo. Whilst the proceeds received are modest relative to the 30 June 2026 carrying value, it allows us to focus on the future without further distraction and is an improvement on the valuation guidance we gave earlier this month,” said Pindar. Shares in the £171m UK private equity fund slipped 0.9% to 282.3p, around 40% below net asset value.
Artemis UK Future Leaders (AFL) has reported an improvement in performance for the first half of its financial year. The £113m trust, which Artemis’ Mark Niznik and William Tamworth took over from Invesco Perpetual in March last year, achieved a 1.6% total investment return in the six months to 31 July, ahead of the 0.9% gain in the Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM index. That compared to an annual return of 5.3% from their appointment to 31 January which lagged the benchmark’s 21.5%. Chair Bridget Guerin said the second quarter was “more encouraging”. Over the last three months of the period net asset value (NAV) grew by 10.1% versus 5.8% for the index. Shareholder returns were ahead of both, rising 2.1% over the six-month period and by 14.8% in the July quarter.
Richard Williams, senior analyst at QuotedData, said: “There are some encouraging signs of a recovery at Artemis UK Future Leaders, with returns in the second quarter comfortably ahead of its benchmark. A sustained outperformance of the benchmark is needed to rebuild the trust’s longer-term record, however. The managers argue that much of the weakness reflects falling valuations rather than deteriorating company fundamentals, and recent takeover approaches for three portfolio holdings lend weight to their view that UK smaller companies are significantly undervalued. With portfolio companies also increasingly buying back their own shares, there are potential catalysts for a recovery.”
Caledonia Investments (CLDN) has announced that Tom Leader will retire as head of Caledonia Private Capital in December with Theo Tizard appointed as his successor. Leader has run the global investment trust’s team investing in private companies such as AIR-serv Europe, Direct Tyre Management, Blue Diamond Garden Centres and Conquip Engineering Group since 2021, having joined Caledonia in 2017. Under him, Caledonia Private Capital invested over £400m and realised nearly £1.1bn with the portfolio reaching a net asset value of £760m at 30 September. Tizard also joined Caledonia in 2017 after six years in corporate finance roles at Houlihan Lokey and PwC. Caledonia said he had been “instrumental in the origination, due-diligence, value creation and realisation process for a number of investments” including Deep Sea Electronics, Bloom Engineering and Conquip Engineering Group.
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