By: Elliot Gulliver-Needham, Investment Reporter, CityAM, 23 January 2025:
Investec analysts have slammed the sale of Digital 9 Infrastructure’s assets as part of the investment trust’s wind-down, describing the process as “extremely poor for shareholders”.
Digital 9, once a darling of the infrastructure sector, fell into chaos after governance concerns and funding problems emerged throughout 2023.
The trust voted to wind down in March 2024, and has been slowly selling off assets in the process, as well as replacing its investment manager.
In recent weeks, Digital 9 announced the sales of two assets it owned, fibre operator Aqua Comms and undersea cable EMIC-1, both at significant discounts to what they had been previously valued.
Aqua Comms was sold for $48m (£39m), a 36 per cent discount to the valuation it received in June 2024, while EMIC-1 was sold for $42m (£34m), a 15 per cent discount to its valuation in June..
“The 80 per cent discounts that Digital 9 has previously traded at suggest that the market got this about right,” added QuotedData analyst Matthew Read.
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