Scottish Mortgage Trust (SMT) has confirmed in its latest factsheet that last month’s doubling in the valuation of SpaceX to $800bn pushed the Baillie Gifford flagship above its 30% cap on unquoted companies with 35.2% of the £15.7bn portfolio in unlisted stocks. SpaceX, a rapidly expanding rocket company launched by Elon Musk, is now a 15.2% holding, the trust’s biggest. Exceeding the unquoted cap does not force Scottish Mortgage to sell, but means fund managers Tom Slater and Lawrence Burns cannot add to their private equity positions. SpaceX is reported to be considering a $1.5trn flotation which, if it is achieved, would resolve the problem.
Develop North (DVNO), the £18m North-East of England investment fund, is looking to nearly quadruple in size with a £58m share issue at 81.6p, priced 5.3% above the latest net asset value per share of 77.5p and a 15% premium to Friday’s closing share price of 71p. The shares, which had traded around 8% below NAV, jumped nearly 10% or 7p to 78p, today. The share issue includes a retail offer that closes on 31 March. The company, which is chaired by John Newlands, former Brewin Dolphin head of investment company research, is also calling a general meeting on 12 February to get shareholder approval for fund manager Tier One Capital to expand its property debt remit to include property investment.
Life Science REIT (LABS), the £131m specialist property investor that began a managed wind-down in September, has seen activist Saba Capital lift its stake from 11.1% to 13.3%. Earlier this month LABS reported a 7.8% fall in its portfolio over the second half of 2025, with its EPRA net tangible assets (NTA) per share declining by 13%. The shares stand on a 44% discount. Tomorrow Saba will find out whether its campaign to oust the board of Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) has succeeded or whether shareholders have rallied to its defence again, having rejected a first attempt last February.
Vietnam Enterprise Investments (VEIL) said the 10% tender offer approved by shareholders on 8 January was heavily oversubscribed with investors applying to sell just over 68%, or 109.7m, of its shares. Following a scale-back exercise, shareholders who tendered more than their basic entitlement will have 1.58% of the excess sold. The shares in the £1.3bn investment company will be sold at a 3% discount to net asset value on Friday. VEIL closed last week on an 11% discount. This morning the shares rose 5p, or 0.6%, to 844p.
JPMorgan Global Emerging Markets Income (JEMI) has changed its name to JPMorgan Emerging Markets Dividend Income. The £473m investment trust believes the new name more clearly reflects its longstanding focus on delivering dividend income with the potential for long-term capital growth. It also distinguishes it from its £1.4bn stablemate JPMorgan Emerging Markets Growth & Income (JMGI) which changed its name from JPMorgan Emerging Markets last November. There are no changes to the investment objective, policy or approach used on JEMI by JP Morgan’s Omar Negyal.
Franklin Global Trust (FRGT) has told fund manager Franklin Templeton not to make any new investments ahead of the company’s merger with Invesco Global Equity Income Trust (IGET), which it announced in November. Asset sales in the usual course of portfolio management are permitted but the board has instructed the manager that the proceeds must be held in cash or near cash securities such as gilts, or the iShares MSCI ACWI UCITS ETF in order to maintain market exposure in line with FRGT’s MSCI All Country World index benchmark.
