Shares in Gresham House Energy Storage (GRID) jumped over 6% today after the £540m battery fund unexpectedly put itself up for sale, whilst at the same time saying it would continue to “pursue” its growth plan.

Just six weeks after formally rejecting a call from activist investor PrimeStone Capital to sell up and claiming a strong first half showed the potential of its recovery programme, the investment trust’s board u-turned and cited shareholder feedback it could not ignore.

Announcing that the company’s financial advisers had been instructed to launch a formal sale process (FSP), chair John Leggate said: “The decision by the board to launch a formal sale process has been taken after careful consideration of a wide range of feedback from our shareholders and has not been taken lightly. It comes against a backdrop in which the board and the manager continue to execute the company’s growth plan which has been reflected in the continued growth in the company’s earnings and a 15.8% uplift in its net asset value during the first six months of the year.

“Despite no change in the board’s confidence in the company’s ability to deliver on the growth plan, we recognise some shareholders’ increased desire to accelerate value delivery which has caused the board to commence an FSP process whilst continuing to pursue the growth plan.”

GRID shares leaped 6.4% to 101p, a 23% discount to NAV per share of 131.3p at 30 June.