3i Group (III) has announced a second £750m share buyback programme to immediately follow the first one launched in May which expires today. The £26bn private equity company said the new programme of buybacks would complete by 31 May and will purchase a maximum of 83.3m shares to use up its annual authority approved by shareholders. In the first programme, its first in 21 years, 3i spent £737.2m on buying back 29.5m shares. All shares repurchased are cancelled as the purpose is to reduce 3i’s share capital. 3i stands on a 17.7% discount. The shares derated in October last year over concerns of slowing growth in Action, the discount retailer that is its dominant investment at around two thirds of net asset value. Since then the price has tumbled 37%.
Utilico Emerging Markets (UEM) had a challenging October with net asset value (NAV) falling by 4.8%, although this was better than the MSCI Emerging Markets index which fell 8.8%. Rising oil prices, a sell-off in Korean semi-conductor stocks, the surprise re-election of Brazilian president Lula and MSCI’s threat to remove Indonesia from its benchmark all knocked markets although in India, the flotation mobile phone operator Jio Platforms was well received, valuing the company at $140bn at the end of the month with the country’s Nifty 50 index up 1.9%. Fund managers Charles Jillings and Jacqueline Broers made one change to their top thirty holdings with Deutsche Telekom controlled Magyar Telekom replacing Hong Kong based data centre SUNeVision. UEM’s share price slipped 4.3% to 270p, with the discount to NAV narrowing slightly to 9% in response to the board buying back 1.1m shares. The 20-year-old £465m utility and infrastructure investor stood at 277p last night.
Cordiant Digital Infrastructure (CORD) received 99.4% support of votes at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders yesterday to change its name to Corilis Digital Infrastructure. The CORD ticker is unchanged. The new name will be adopted when it is submitted to its registrar in Guernsey. This follows the decision of Canada’s Cordiant Capital Inc to sell its 50.7% interest in CORD’s fund manager Cordiant Digital Infrastructure Management.
Saba Capital has lifted its position in Unite Group (UTG) to 7.8% from 7%. The activist hedge fund first revealed a 5.1% stake in the retrenching student accommodation provider in August.
