Henderson European (HET) says that holders of 89.775m shares opted for cash (29.04% of its share capital) and 219.332m shares were rolled into Fidelity European (FEV). The cap on the cash option was 33.3%, so everyone who wanted cash will get it. Henderson European will delist on 26 September.
Having decided to hang onto all of its stake, Chrysalis Investments (CHRY) will be happy that Klarna’s shares closed at $45.82 yesterday, up over 10% fro the IPO price and in-line with the valuation that CHRY was holding the company at in its last NAV – see our story from yesterday.
Alliance Witan (ALW) says that Andrew Ross, the former chair of Witan, who joined the ALW board as part of the merger, will step down as a director at the end of ths year. At ALW, he was the deputy chairman and helped to oversee the integration of the two companies.
RTW Biotech Opportunities (RTW) is putting a positive face on its six month figures, which showed a 6% fall in NAV and a 13.6% fall in its share price over the first half of 2025, both well under the 1.9% fall in the Nasdaq Biotech Index. It suggests that an initiative – “Make American Biotech Accelerate” – from Health Secretary RFK Jr. and M&A activity taking advantage of cheap valuations will help turn the sector’s fortunes around. Roderick Wong, the CIO of the manager and a significant personal investor in the company said “the biotech industry is navigating a complex but increasingly constructive environment. Policy momentum is leaning pro-innovation, valuations are at multi-year lows, and strategic buyers are stepping in with unprecedented balance sheet firepower. For investors able to look through the short-term noise, the combination of regulatory support, scientific progress, and strategic demand points to a potentially powerful re-rating“. Encouragingly, buybacks totalling 15% of the issued share capital in H1 and the news that we discussed the other day about the company joining the FTSE Russell indices have narrowed the discount to 18% from 28% at the half-year mark.
GCP Asset Backed Income (GABI) notes that it has now returned £188.2m to its shareholders, having redeemed 210m shares in pursuit of its managed wind down. There were 23 loans valued at £153.6m still left in the portfolio at the end of June.
In its results to end June 2025, VH Global Energy Infrastructure (ENRG) manager’s report argues strongly for the role of renewables and supporting infrastructure in tackling big themes such as energy security and the colossal demand for power from AI. However, this is another company in wind down mode, having kicked off the process at the end of August. The statement noted the 2.2% fall in the NAV over H1, which was mainly down to adverse foreign exchange movements. It sounds as though the underlying portfolio is doing well. The only other major negative was low rainfall in Brazil, which reduced the output of its hydroelectric scheme.
A period of short-term underperformance by Schroder Asian Total Return (ATR) in H1 2025 appears to have reversed. The manager highlights the impressive returns (+27%) achieved by the South Korean market over the first six months of 2025. However, the trust had an underweight exposure to this market relative to its benchmark
LondonMetric Property (LMP) has acquired £78.5m of assets across five transactions, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.5%. The nine properties add £4.6m to the rent roll and includes a portfolio of five Premier Inn hotels bought from Whitebread on a sale-and-leaseback for £44.4m. Whitbread has signed new 30-year leases with five-yearly rent reviews linked to CPI. The other assets comprise an 80,000 sq ft logistics warehouse development funding acquired for £10.7m pre-let to Severfield Plc on a 20-year lease with annual rent reviews linked to CPI; a 68,000 sq ft logistics warehouse in the West Midlands for £8.3m; a 21,000 sq ft M&S-let convenience retail development funding in Ludlow for £7.6m; and a 40,000 sq ft convenience retail asset in Tunbridge Wells let to Booker for £7.5m.
Picton Property (PCTN) has launched a £12.5m share buyback programme, with the diversified REITs shares trading at a 26.7% discount to NAV. This follows the repurchase of £17.3m shares (4.4% of the company) earlier this year. The company will use some of the proceeds of an office sale (which has yet to complete and will be announced on completion).
NewRiver REIT (NRR) announces that Fitch Ratings has affirmed its investment grade credit rating, with its long-term issuer default rating at ‘BBB’ with a stable outlook. It senior unsecured rating (which applies to its £300m bond dated 2028) was ‘BBB+’.
Mid Wynd (MWY) had a bit of a shocker over the year to end June 2025, underperforming its MSCI All Country World Index benchmark by 12.3 percentage points in NAV terms and seeing some modest discount widening on top (from 1.5% to 2.6%). The chairman observes that Lazard’s quality growth style has been out of favour with the market over the whole period since it took on the trust in October 2023. To maintain the rating, the company bought back 9.5m shares or 19% of its issued share capital, and has bought back another 3.6m shares since the end of June. The manager maintains that the underlying stocks in the portfolio are doing well, growing their earnings by 12.0% on average, but the wider market is not willing to rate ‘quality’ stocks as highly as it had been.
