UIL (UTL), the £199m flexible listed sister fund and founder of Utilico Emerging Markets (UEM), has proposed selling its £99.5m stake in Somers, its other investment platform, that represented 40.1% of its portfolio at 30 June. Some shares will be sold to General Provincial Life Pension Fund of Malaysia, which already owns 78.9% of Somers, to repay a loan from the fund to UIL. Somers will buy back the remaining shares from UIL in return for the transfer of certain portfolio investments. The transactions will be based on Somers’ net asset value per share on 31 October and are aimed at simplifying UIL’s group structure. As such there will be change to UIL’s NAV. They are expected to take place in the first week of November.
BlackRock Smaller Companies (BRSC), the £552m UK small-cap trust managed by BlackRock’s Roland Arnold, blamed its “growth” style being out of favour as it reported a 2.9% investment gain for the half-year to 31 August that underperformed its benchmark’s 9.9% gain.
Abrdn European Logistics Income (ASLI), the £146m real estate investment trust in wind-down, says the net asset value (NAV) of its 10 remaining assets fell by €14m (£12m), or 5.2%, to €256.6m (£218m) at 30 September from €270.6m (£230m) at 30 June. The reduced valuation reflects expected sale prices for three assets currently under conditional sale agreements and independent Savills valuations for the other seven properties. The estimated NAV share, including provision for estimated portfolio disposal and company structure liquidation costs, decreased to 48.2c (42.1p) from 78.8c (GBp – 67.4p) reflecting £103m of capital distributions in the quarter.
Literacy Capital (BOOK), the £220m UK private equity investment trust on a 29% share price discount, saw a small 0.3% fall in net asset value (NAV) per share to 517.8p in the three months to 30 September. The period saw BOOK generate its strongest quarterly cash inflow of £28.7m helped by the sale and reinvestment of its second-largest holding, Velociti, a software provider to bus and rail operators, at a 52% premium to its March valuation, and also the refinancing of another portfolio company. Techpoint, a supply chain manager, was the largest positive contributor to performance, while recent additions such as testing group Trinitatum continued to show encouraging progress, the company said.
Fidelity Emerging Markets (FEML) gained 99.3% of shareholder votes for its agreement to buy back the 25.7% stake in the £614m investment company from Strathcylde Pension Fund.
Great Portland Estates (GPE) has completed the sale of 1 Newman Street, north of London’s Oxford Street to Royal London Asset Management Property for a headline price of £250m, reflecting a net initial yield (NIY) of 4.48%, marginally ahead of the March 2025 book value.
Alternative Income REIT (AIRE) has sold the Applegreen Petrol Filling Station in Crawley, West Sussex for £4.5m, 17.8% more than it paid for it and £500,000 premium to the 30 June valuation. The property accounted for 3.7% of the portfolio and was sold on a 6.3% yield to Rontec Properties No 7, part of the same group as the current occupier. The sale will reduce borrowing from 41.5% to 38.5% of assets.
Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT) has sold its stake in HYRO Energy Limited, a UK-based green hydrogen and e-fuels development platform, for £4.6m to Octopus Energy Transition Fund, a related co-investor, following a “competitive process” managed by an external party. The sale is in line with the latest valuation of HYRO.
Pantheon International (PIN) has extended its £400m multi-currency credit facility by one year beyond its original October 2028 expiry. PIN is paying 2.65% above the benchmark interest rates, down from 2.95% with a commitment fee lowered to 0.65% from 0.8%, achieving “significant finance cost savings” over the four-year period.
